I started collecting vinyl records last week
I am a serial, obsessive collector. I have always been this way. If something can be rare, unusual, or valuable, I'll start a collection of it. The following is an incomplete list of things I collected during my childhood:
- Stamps
- Coins
- Comic Books
- Trading Cards
- Pencils
- Action Figures
- Outer-Space-Themed Lego Sets
- Beanie Babies
- Videogames
I think the worst it ever got was when I would buy or receive die-cast cars (i.e. Hot Wheels) and then put the unopened toy away in a closet as part of my collection. I was convinced these would someday be valuable. Unless metal becomes a rare and precious resource, fat chance. They are still tucked away in boxes in my closet back home though.
I didn't do any collecting while I was attending college or moving around afterward. I didn't have the money for it, nor the space to keep things. Now that I am somewhat settled down in a decent size apartment in Central NJ, I'm getting back into the swing. I've got a shelf in the living room with my collection of DVDs, videogames, rare Nintendo memorabilia, and CDs. Yes, I collect CDs. Once I realized they were going out of style, I actually had a desire to buy them. Some notable entries in my collection would be:
- A promo-only single of D.A.N.C.E. by Justice, with my favorite version of the track "B.E.A.T."
- The original motion picture soundtrack for Prince of Egypt
- Happy Paradise 2, a mixed compilation of High NRG music from Japan that appears in dancing games like DDR.
At least, they are notable to me, because at this point in my life I've given up on collecting things for their "potential monetary value" and am instead collecting things for my own perceived interest. After all, I need to learn to open & play with my toys.
So on to the point of my writing this… last week I started collecting vinyls. I had some vinyls to my name for quite a few years before that, which I had inherited, and a few others that I bought at an antique store in Gainesville, Florida about a year ago. I had never heard these vinyls, but I was planning to, eventually. Last week while I was home in Miami, I decided it was time for me to get in tune with the past and pack those vinyls in my suitcase for the trip back. I also made a trip to a Goodwill Superstore and bought 25 vinyls, at $1 each, most for me but some for my parents. Speaking of parents, I neglected to mention that last week I got to try out my parents' record player for the first time, which would also be the first time I listened to vinyl outside of a nightclub. Yes, they do sound amazing, but then again I was listening to Stan Getz, Herb Alpert, and The Platters among others, so maybe it was the talent.
Friday, being apparently a good day to find online deals, I actually purchased a record player of my own, which should be arriving some time next week. And yesterday I finally got to visit the Princeton Record Exchange, which is apparently one of the largest stores of its kind. Digging through boxes of $1 vinyls was fun, but I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed when they told me they only had two boxes of electronica vinyls tucked away under a table… NJ has no taste. I did manage to score a greatest hits album by Donna Summer, which was at the top of my list of "things I want to find so I can say this store is awesome", as well as my very first new vinyl(s), Brotherhood by The Chemical Brothers.
So as of this writing, I have a collection of about 30 vinyl records sitting in my living room (upright of course), without a shelf to put them on, a record player to play them, or even cleaning solution to get the dust off. The record player and cleaning solution are due to arrive in a week, while the shelf is going to take some planning. But they sure are nice to look at!
Which brings me to my next point about vinyls… it's unfortunate that they retail for high prices, but if you have ever seen them, they look really nice. An album, which usually comes on 2 12" records, also comes in a nice big 12" sleeve that has the artwork printed nice & big on the front. I can totally see myself framing some vinyls and hanging them on my wall… that's how good they look. If I really like an album, it's safe to say that the vinyl is a much better buy than the CD, for something that I want to keep and show off for a long time. And since my record player, and most others, make it easy to rip vinyls, deciding which to buy is just a matter of taste. So I think I can see myself purchasing both CDs and vinyls from now on.
p.s. You might be wondering, what about digital music? There was a time when I was buying music on iTunes and Amazon… not much, but since I was moving around, it was the easiest way to get music. Eventually I got annoyed with iTunes; while the quality is good and it's easy to sync with Apple devices and burn to CDs, it gets far less convenient when I want to play my songs elsewhere. The tipping point for my distaste of iTunes came when I had to pay extra to upgrade all of my purchased music to iTunes Plus, their DRM-free format. I don't see why something I buy should have DRM to begin with, I should have the rights to my own personal use of the content as soon as I open my wallet. As for Amazon, I think their store is very convenient and much less restrictive than iTunes, but I have to admit I'm not too fond of MP3s, even if they are 320kb quality, and while I like their prices, I don't think you get very much for what you pay. I like booklets and liner notes, and the only time I got anything like that in digital form was when I bought Alive 2007 by Daft Punk on iTunes (and it still didn't compare to a physical booklet).
That all being said, the point is that if I really like some piece of music, I'll opt for a physical copy. If I buy something in digital form, it's usually because I just want a single song to add to my playlist that I'll probably stop listening to eventually. For the kind of music I listen to for years, like Jack Johnson, Cassius, Nat King Cole, etc. I want the real deal 
Edit: Because Amazon.com is amazing, my new record player was waiting beside my doorstep when I got home. Now all of Flickr, and the rest of the Internet, know of my ability to play vinyls:
So far I can only listen to the clean records in my collection: "Brotherhood" by The Chemical Brothers, Donna Summer Greatest Hits Volume 1 & 2, and "Elvis" (pressed in 1973). They all sound great!
Great. Welcome to the club. Now stop calling them vinyls. They're records, or LPs. Vinyl is what they're made of. You have a collection of vinyl, but it is made up of records.
@Travis: I couldn't agree more, and I've been seeing the phrase used more and more often recently. It drives me crazy.
I have albums, LPs, or just records. I do not have "vinyls."
As for the post: I hope you find a good record store, one with an eye for quality and fair pricing. Nothing makes record collecting more fun, than having a good group of folks working at your store.
Look for some stuff by Tangerine Zoo, It's hard to find, but you will not be disapointed.
I have a feeling the term "Vinyl's" is here to stay unfortunatly!
@andrew, I'm on a crusade to kill that term. Please join in and fight the good fight!
It doesn't even make sense. It's like saying "I went down to Quizno's and picked up some meats."
No you didn't, you picked up a sandwich, and it happened to have 8 slices of meat on it.
Nobody goes to the CD store and picks up some new plastics.
Nobody went to a big NFL stadium last Sunday and watched a couple of football mans play.
Ugh. Now I'm all worked up. I might as well leave work for the day, I'm not going to get anything done.
Sorry guys. I'm going to practice saying "vinyl records" for the rest of the day so I can undo this bad habit.
@andrew: I should say, the store I went to (http://www.prex.com) is a very good store. I found a bunch of great records for $1. They are just very focused on Rock & Jazz since that is probably most of what people buy and sell in this area. At least I should be able to find a lot of classics… after all, I scored a greatest hits set of The Carpenters for $2 and Billy Joel's Piano Man for $1!
I love going through the $1 bins. Take a lot of chances. They don't need to be in perfect condition, as long as they're not too badly scratched up, pops & clicks are character.
We have no great record shops around here, so consider yourself lucky. I have a minimum 2.5 hour drive to get to a good shop, or I can waste a lot of time at garage sales looking at Jim Neighbors records and those damn Firestone Christmas compilations.
We have two shops in town, one has a small inventory of really good quality records, the other has a bigger selection of decent quality records that are overpriced, and neither has much turnover, so you can't go more than once a month.
I think saying vinyl is completely understandable. "Record" has become a very general word and has been applied to CDs for years. To say, "I just bought the new Aerosmith record" doesn't necessarily mean you bought it on vinyl. Sorry, I'm sticking with the term vinyl. Gets the point across clearly and efficiently.
Erin, there's no problem with saying you have something 'on vinyl.' my problem is with people referring to several albums as 'vinyls'. It's just not right.
Reading your posts on and off over the past year, I never had an impression of how old you are. Although, had I stopped to think about it, your interest in games could be seen as indicative of a younger person. But then, so could this web thing…!
Now I know… Young enough never to have bought any vinyl records before!
The problem is trying to pluralise "vinyl" with an 's'. It just doesn't make sense.
I don't know about elsewher in the world, but in NZ our vinyl bins are populated with a disproportionate amount of Nana Mouskouri.
Well done on starting out on n excellent and worthwhile (if heavy) obsession!
It's amazing to me that this is even something to write about! As a DJ and music lover who was born in the 80s, vinyl has just been a part of my life like books or TV or the Internet. I guess it shows how old I am when I realize that kids these days may not even know what a record is or what a turntable does.
For the record (pun not intended) vinyl will always sound better than any other format, no matter how many filters and processes they use to try and recreate that sound. It's an analogue format and nothing will ever sound as warm and deep. It's sad that most probably, it won't be commercially viable to put music on vinyl in another 5-10 years time.
Yes it's expensive but that's because the means to create it are old school, they require expensive gear and machinery, but the sound you get out of it is worth it IMO.
Rohan: You are 100% correct, in 5-10 years time I wonder if we will see any more physical formats for music.
I think what might remain are the limited run, collector's edition records. Just today I received my first Hanukkah present, a 12" picture disc of Kavinsky's "Blazer." Limited quantities of this were pressed and one of the four tracks on the disc was previously unreleased. Another record I wanted to get but missed out on was a 500 copy run of Air France's "No Way Down/On Trade Winds" with no repress. It's like T-Shirt printing, keep the quantities very limited to ensure that every copy sells. It's unfortunate because it's going to be tough for me to get the records I want, but if it means that I will at least be able to still purchase something on vinyl in the next 10 years then I guess I'm OK with it.
After all, you can tell from my post that anything with the word "Collector" on it is probably going to get me to open my wallet
Yeah, most record labels that are still pushing vinyl only do so in limited runs. I know for a fact that many underground music labels do it and simply break even on their investments (or lose money) but they simply continue out of love for the format.
I stopped buying vinyl about 2 years ago. The amount of records my bro and me have collected over the years fills up about 10 crates. We love the stuff but its just taking up too much space.
These days we go to a gig with a few records, but most of our tunes on either CDs or even USB sticks. Its just become the norm now. I recently had a mix at a friend's place though, he refuses to stop buying records. It made me really jealous, mixing with vinyl is a special feeling that will never be captured again by digital media. Its an epoch in music history that is slowly coming to an end.
What kind of hardware do you use to mix?
We've got a pair of technics turntables and a vestax mixer. Other than vinyl we use a pretty awesome technology called Serato Scratch Live, it comes with hardware and integrated software to let you mix mp3s like vinyl. It's too hard for me to explain (or understand really!) how it actually works. Apart from that we use pioneer CDJs in clubs when serato isn't possible, but I prefer serato personally.
people say digital is the future, vinyl is going out
i say vinyl is the future
before too long people will get sick of buying stuff they can never sell when they don't want it anymore. piracy will become the norm. online digital audio outlets will go out. it will all be free. even major labels will barely be able to sell digital audio anymore, they'll have to resort to making all their money on collectible items and live performances.
people will start collecting vinyl again because it retains value. musicians will get sick and tired of their tracks being whored out all over the internet in just a few moments time and canned a week later. the musical community will realise that vinyl is a way of reinforcing the music's status of true high art.
never charge money for digital releases, give out free promos digitally to the masses, and reserve your cream of the crop for limited vinyl releases. you press a few, and never again.
this is what good music truly deserves and musicians and enthusiasts will shine through and bring the tradition forward in a new light. dubplate culture is only gaining momentum. i was born in 86. we are rolling this ball forward. where is your optimism? all you people ever say is "kids these days"
help keep it alive and well folks
Groundwater: I couldn't agree more. There's a growing trend for artists to release limited edition EPs and LPs on vinyl, especially in the indie-label scene. Interestingly enough, it's these records that I value most; ones for which there were only between 500 and 5,000 copies produced. Even though I could rip these albums and share lossless-quality files online, I'm the only one with the original on vinyl, and in a 12" sleeve, I have something that I can frame and show off to friends. I'd rather spend $20 on a vinyl record, with an attractive sleeve, than $5 on a handful of MP3s. Sure, I can do more with those MP3s, but there's no real value in the format.
Hi, Once you're gripped by record collecting life will never be the same. Other collecting is fine, but rarely can collecting bring you so much enjoyment. I started in my teens (80's) with Bowie, Gary Numan, Pink Floyd and Elvis Costello … Now I've got 3'000 jazz LP's, 1500 History of Pop LP's and over 5000 singles. I would advise buying an instrument, so that you can develop with every record that you buy.
Wishing you all the best
Col