13 replies to this topic

[Hans Christian Anderson]

Great piece by Eric Grandy of The Stranger (Seattle alt-weekly) about how difficult it is to really collect records these days if you're: young, lower than middle class, renting, or all of the above. Original found here. IN so many words, it's not just why I haven't started collecting vinyl yet, it's why I have only purchased at most 3 new CDs this year (granted I've purchased dirt cheap hard copies of albums I've had in mp3 for years and adore, but that's another story). Read on and discuss...

Right now, my esteemed colleague Dave Segal is on the phone negotiating the long-delayed transport of his record collection from Orange County. Segal has been here for just over a month; these should have been here just days after he arrived. “These are extremely valuable to me,” he’s telling the person on the other end of the phone. “I’m not going to let this go.” It sounds pretty grim.

Last week, I was in NYC. I walked by Other Music, Victory Records, various little vinyl boutiques, and while, on some abstract level, I wanted to support all these businesses, I didn’t come home with a single record. At my kind host’s stylish but small railroad apartment, we listened to music on a nice set of speakers plugged into mp3 players and laptops. They had maybe two boxes of records. I can’t remember whether or not they had a turntable set up (I don’t think so).

At home, I have the same brand of shelving as every other vinyl owning young person, the one made out of 16 squares perfectly sized for 12”s (your model may have 25 squares if you’re fancy). It’s half full of vinyl, half full of books and other media. I have a few crates worth of records on additional shelving or in actual crates on the floor, but I’m lately convinced that I’m never going to fill the rest of this shelf up with vinyl, let alone have to someday spring for the 25 square model.

I find no joy in this conclusion. I would love to live in a house lined with shelves of records. I would prefer my living room to look like these. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.

Vinyl is relatively big and heavy. Airlines are charging for extra baggage, and even when they weren’t, traveling with vinyl (say, enough to DJ with) is grueling compared to traveling with mp3s or even CDs. Shipping is apparently a drag as well. Apartment space for record shelving is limited.

Music is expensive. We’re diving headlong into what looks to my admittedly not economically expert eyes like a serious recession/depression, and records just aren’t a necessity as much as food and shelter (Segal will likely debate this point with me). Rising fuel prices only aggravate the flying/shipping issues as well. As much as I want to support these small business and be a parton of artists, I just can’t give any more than I can afford. Before this job, that meant buying records as carefully as possible, downloading what I couldn’t afford to buy, and supporting artists at shows and by buying other merch. Now, it frequently means building my collection through promotional copies. Both means meant more CDs and mp3s than vinyl making their way into my collection. Morgan Geist might complain that I’m not listening to his records on the proper hi-fi setup in the ideal format, but audiophile gear is a luxury that most music fans probably can’t afford. Hell, even Sasha Frere-Jones is selling his record collection.

These are gloomy, doomy times—every time someone in New York asked me how work was going, I would reply that it’s great, the music business is tanking, print journalism is tanking, so print music journalism is the most exciting place you could hope to be. In seriousness, it’s an awesome job, I feel fortunate every day to have it, but I’m not sure it’ll ever launch me comfortably into the middle class. I think I may never own a home; maybe I won’t be able to hold on to all the music I love for posterity either. Maybe formats—or other, larger paradigms—will shift and force people of my class situation to leave certain things behind. I think record collections, as opposed to mp3 collections, will only become increasingly a thing of class privilege rather than of ardent music fandom (I suppose it was always this way; perhaps music fans of less means have just moved from dubbed cassettes to mp3s).

Sacrilege, maybe, but as much as I love the look and feel of vinyl, records are only of marginally more value to me than the equivalent mp3s. Or: If I have to, I can let record collecting go. At least it’ll be easier to move when rising rent finally prices me out my current place.

[Mr.Nobody]

This was a very interesting read. I find that with most things(including records)you just have to be thrifty. Buying used albums can be a cheap and effective way to build a collection(At least at my record store which has $1.00 and $3.00 bin which good stuff can often be found in.). I have done this and have had no problems affording my bills,However(aside from the essentials) I don't really buy anything other than music these days anyways.

[Pavement Ist Rad]

Other Music is a great store. I bought all of these from there: Nurse With Wound - Homotopy To Marie Derek Bailey - Ballads AMM - The Crypt: 12th June 1968, The Complete Session The Homosexuals - Astral Glamour Of course, those were New York trips, so they were all "new." 95% of CDs I buy are "used." Probably 70% of vinyl.

[Fiat Records]

In my experience, wealth and awe-inspiring record collections are inversely proportional. Maybe that's just because of the circle of people I hang around with.

[Hans Christian Anderson]

shoulda clarified in my intial post, by 3 new CDs in 2008 i mean albums that were released in 2008. i predominantly buy used too, with the main exception being new releases i want to get. however, there's a reason that there's always like 10 copies of whip-smart and 2 copies of exile on guyville at the typical used CD stores. people don't sell back an artist's best records as much.

[Pavement Ist Rad]

I've only bought one 2008 album, ha. Kevin Drumm double disc. And I own four releases from 2007! All on vinyl. Shit yeah. I guess I'm spoiled with being in Chicago, which is home to a.) three Reckless Records locations, and b.) they have everything they have in the stores listed on their website, as well as which store they're at. Not exaggerating when I say that a good 90% of albums that I have been seriously interested in buying since years ago up until now have turned up in their stores in used forms. Sometimes they escape from my grasp too quickly, either because of financial issues or because somebody got to them first. And sometimes I totally score an insanely out of print "50 dollars on Amazon" CD for nine bucks.

[Simakos]

shit, i bought four 2008 records this week... one on vinyl, three CDs. i buy shit all the fucking time. stuff arrives at my house in the mail just about every other day. my wife thinks i'm insane. gotta admit i don't frequent Reckless as much i used to... Permanent Records has been stealing my business. i accidentally bought 2 Box Elders 7" singles a few weeks ago, one online and one at the store, forgetting that i already had one on the way. i even bought a new cassette this year. one of the Mannequin Men guys has a solo 4-track thing that he releases only on cassette. i am not wealthy... i'm not sure what this article is really investigating here, it just sounds to me like this guy loves his job but is feeling sorry for himself because he makes no money. buck up, kiddo...

[Rob Gordon]

Yeah, I don't agree at all with his contention. Perhaps he should move to an area of the country where the cost of living is more affordable.

[Ted Falconi]

I bought a lot more records when I lived in an apartment and had 1/3 my present income. EDIT: I also drank much more Old Style and ate more frozen pizzas back then.

[Waylon]

The only thing that's changed for music collectors in the last 30 years is that it's easier to steal music. This guy is doing a lot of gymnastics to try justify his downloading.

[no magnets]

on one hand, i want to sympathize with this guy because i understand where he's coming from. on the other hand, i don't make a ton of money, bought a bunch of music (new and used) in new york over the weekend (even though i live within 3 miles of two reckless locations and numerous other great chicago record shops), and am looking to buy a home (ok, a condo) in a more expensive market than seattle. maybe i've just been smarter than him with money. clearly, records do mean a lot to him. or he wouldn't be writing about it. he's only fooling himself by saying that they're marginally more important than digital copies of the same albums.

[Hans Christian Anderson]

i think the money is only part of it. seriously, how the fuck do you people that are renting apartments / periodically moving distances that require flying or shipping transport and store substantial collections? i've only had one major move in my life and it was 5 years ago but still, moving my ~200 cds at the time was the biggest challenge of all.

[Simakos]

[Fiat Records]

A friend of mine recently helped move her boyfriend's record collection from one side of the country to the other. It took a month or two, and he sent her one box at a time through the mail to her house. There were maybe a dozen big boxes. I think it would be just as hard to move a large quantity of china plates and teacups though... right? I've only moved once in my life and I really didn't have too much breakable stuff. The hardest part was making sure the fish tank didn't shift around too much in the back of the moving truck. All of the fish made it alive.