I love my vinyl collection. I love collecting vinyl more than I like people. They take up a lot of room, some are too messed up to play, and they're overly pricey but I love my collection. I'm in the process of bolstering the amount of punk records (Bikini Kill, Pere Ubu, Orwells, Ought) I have at the moment since there aren't many exciting new releases coming up. Here's a list of positives for vinyl collecting:
1. They come with a download card
The biggest fault with vinyl is there lack of portability that is always brought up when vinyl is brought up (which is internalized by the joke "hey lets listen to it in the car"). What all new vinyl comes with now is a free download card that you can download the MP3s of the album....a surprising amount of people don't know this. While I'm talking about stuff that people don't know-- why do a lot of older people not know not only where to buy new vinyl, but that it's still being sold. I feel like whenever I go to a record store a couple of old people always walk by and say "oh wow I didn't know they still sold records." And the ones that do buy them are terribly un-savvy at it, "is that a cat stevens?! Oh man they got it.... Journey."
2. Buying Vinyl is a Game
There's a certain amount of knowledge and skill when it comes to buying vinyl (not a lot of either but more than you need for other music mediums). You have to check condition, if its an original or repress, if its a rarer find, if there's a chance it could go out of print, knowing if it'll translate to vinyl well enough, if the price is a good or bad deal, etc. I go to multiple record stores and vinyl shows and rummages and after a while you start to see what albums are worth a lot or what isn't and what tends to show up the most. For example, people go nuts over Elvis but he was the number one guy in music for a long time, despite my slight hate for him, which means there are a lot of sold records out there. It's easy to find Elvis records (barring his first which is pretty hard to find) and find them cheap.
3. Aesthetically Pleasing
Vinyl just looks better. The picture is bigger, which makes the album look less like a product and more like artwork. It pops more. Even the size of a vinyl makes it feel worth more than a CD. Plus a few records come with a nice inner sleeve, or its a gatefold which is my favorite. I have big stacks of CDs and I'd rather look at my vinyls. CDs are baby carrots in a cucumber fight.
4. It's Classic Cool
Aside from the looks, the whole process of buying and listening to a record is cool. FIrst, flipping through records is a lot cooler looking than most things. If you find someone who is really good at flipping, they're fingers look so nimble sauntering in between each record. Walking with a record to the side of you in your in hand makes you look badass and casual, a hard combination. Taking a vinyl out of it's sleeve and observing it, you look like a music scientist. This last one actually sold me one buying vinyls. My friend had vinyl before I did and he convinced me that putting on a record while having a lady over will make you look suave as fuck...and it does. Putting down that needle on a groove, classy.
5. Fun Variations+ Collectable
There are so many different kinds of vinyl to buy, as Jack White has recently shown us with his Ultra LP. There are different colors, picture discs, see through, glow in the dark, flat as in paperish vinyls. All kinds. Its fun to open up a vinyl and see if be in red or clear or boobs on it (thank you Sky Ferreira). 45's are fun too, especially since they usually come with a non-album B-side or non-album songs period, which is something that often happens too. I believe Against Me just released a picture disc 45 with two b-sides on it and Ty Segall routinely releases one off songs on 45. What makes these variations cooler is that they're extremely collectable to vinyl nuts. An example of this is when before an album is dropped, there are preorders that are limited, usually in a different color or picture disc, and once they're sold out, they're out. Having highly collectable records is kind've a feather in a collectors cap. It feels cool to have something only a few people have. I have a Cults test pressing that only had a run of less of 100 and although it isn't worth much cause they aren't that big, it still feels neat to have it. Plus finding these collectable pieces is part of "the game". Original early Hold Steady albums are sold for at the very minimum 100 dollars, which is pretty good for a record. Plus Plus, they make cool heirlooms if they maintain their coolness for another generation.
6. Listening to the Album
This is my favorite for a less obvious reason. I feel that a vinyls lack of portability is one of its strengths because you're legitly stuck in a room with the music. You have to listen to that record and I think that creates an appreciation for the music when you can't dilly dally with other things. Its intimate. One of my critiques for buying a record (which ill go more in-depth in my last of this series) is if the record is worth sitting in a room with. For example, you haven't listened to Bob Dylan until it's just you and him in a room and his voice and his thoughts and his passion are the only thing taking up space. It was through vinyl that I finally gained an appreciation for the Beatles because you start hearing all the little things that they put into the music. You start hearing the stories and ironic jokes that Randy Newman is telling and you start hearing pureness in the voice of Phil Ochs. Everything starts standing out. Some records are meant to be listened to and others are meant to play in the background. I don't mean that in a bad way, obviously, but some records are best listened to when they are commanding the room.
Also kinda not really connected to this, is that its pretty nice to have some albums that you only have a vinyl. My Neutral Milk Hotel MP3s are damaged and instead of replacing them, I only listen to them on vinyl. It makes an album feel special if you can only listen to it a certain place. Aeroplane Over the Sea is my favorite album, but having it not widely available gives it a different aura. I have very little "classics" on my iPod because I have them on vinyl. Its good to have some music tucked in your back pocket. Its the Wu-tang experiment done on a smaller scale. Wu-tang made an album that is only going to be listenable at select museums and not released commercially so its considered a piece of art and not just a product. Having a few albums not on an iPod or streamed or something make those albums feel more valuable. Like going home and looking at a painting hung up in a den and not having it as the background to a phone. I'm big on not having overexposure.
I could just be a big weirdo for taking all of this so serious but hey its something to do, am I right? Having something to care about is a pretty nice thing.
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