Strictly no digital

#21

Not to mention that vinyl-only releases ARE a selling point to a certain demographic…

#22

I love vinyl as a collector’s item but economics make it an impossible purchase 90% of the time for me. We’re talking a minimum of 15£ with shipping for a 12, which adds up to 26$ Canadian for a product I’ll get within a month.

If I lived next to Idle Hands, I’d have a hell of a collection of vinyl only material but in North America, it’s just not feasible with a few emotion-driven exceptions per year.

#23

It’s really crazy to buy used vinyl and see the original pricing stickers on them from the 80’s and 90’s. Even adjusting for inflation, things are through the roof in terms of basic price per unit. Vinyl EPs of now are the same price of LP full lengths back then, and now those reissue vinyl full lengths are $25-$45. A luxury item.

#24

Honestly vinyl was a big reason to me to get into DJing at all. It was and still is a fascinating thing to dig thorugh loads of unknown music in a recordstore and Iove to spin records. I guess I have to take some time to look at current possibilities for digital DJing.

Anyway. I don’t think vinyl-only releases make much sense anymore. So I really like the whole Bandcamp-idea.

#25

That’s not my impression. You can buy ep’s for 9-10 euros and where I am that is exactly the same price as in the 90s.

#26

Basically all the reasons people are citing for not getting into vinyl is the reasons why I love it.

#27

I rarely buy dance music on vinyl, with notable exceptions being labels like Regelbau or Perlon who release indeed mostly on vinyl.

My main reason for this is that I encounter a lot of poor setups, where the turntables aren’t isolated properly, or have immense feedback. It really annoys me to bring a ton of records and not being able to play them, so I’d rather rip certain files / get them of P2P sites. It’s just less hassle than soundchecking at every gig, something I’d gladly do when headlining events, but not if I’m closing proceedings in a local bar.

That said, I do buy a lot of dance music in digital formats, either through Bandcamp or Hardwax/Beatport. For me, this works as some sort of filter to only buy something which I really really like. Although now that I’ve typed this, I realise that my bank account must disagree with this last statement :thinking:

#28

When people would ask me why I buy vinyl I’d often say that there’s a lot of stuff you can only get on vinyl.

Nowadays if something is only available on vinyl I usually just buy something else. There’s enough music out there.

Download codes slightly insentivised me for a couple of years but I’m not precious about collecting it nowadays. I do zero dj-ing now though so that’s probably a big factor.

#29

this is all beside the point. I already know why people prefer vinyl. the weight of a gatefold, the smooth texture of the printing ink on lush cardstock, the static friction as it slides out of the smudge-free sleeve, the crisp edge of that fresh disc on the tips of your fingers that just makes you want to lick it, I fuckin’ GET IT.

I’m just struggling with the rationale to restrict someone’s enjoyment of the contents therein to only those who want to purchase the physical object. why would the label or artist reject my money just because I prefer a digital format?

#30

Guess we all derailed your thread …

Maybe those artist and labels just want you to buy vinyl? There could be a lot of reasons.
Have you ever tried to contact them directly and ask for buying files?

#31

Also consider this when it come to the Ravedit 12": If you do edits or mash-ups and stuff like this no one cares about 300 pressed records because normally there is not much attention to it. But if you upload files there could be more trouble because it’s easier to find.

#32

i’m not really buying into the whitelabel aspect. if the samples arent cleared - this is dumb for both rian and death of rave to put out with their names on it.

if the music were good on its own merit (and easily identifiable anyhow) they would have just done a proper 300 pressing white label and called it a day.

#33

yep, totally get that. and, actually, in this case, totally fine with that. it wasn’t clear to me at first that the release was unauthorized edits. okay. with that said…

Rian’s last couple of releases were vinyl only and it just strikes me as odd that, having purchased his first release a few years back on digital, enjoyed it, looked forward to the next, etc. and now feeling like, well, guess I can’t follow this dude’s output anymore because I don’t buy vinyl.

obviously, indie labels/artists don’t have the resources to cater to everyone’s varied format needs but, to @avery’s point above, CDs kind of used to be the default format for those who just want to move on to the business of simply listening to the tunes without the fuss. CDs have phased themselves out and now digital is the new default and it’s my opinion that digital should be made available for philistines of the world like myself. I support the headz who want the shiny object. and this applies to cassette culture too. yeah, I have three tape decks in my studio, so what, I live a busy life and want to listen to it on my phone. is that so much to ask?

#34

Yeah I was thinking the same. Something like Theo Parrish’s Ugly Edits you might only be able to make money off a small run of records.
Fuck knows.

#35

@Spednar I have no clue, it’s just a guess.

@criminiminal

so what, I live a busy life and want to listen to it on my phone. is that so much to ask?

No, you’re absolutely right! But, hey, why not send them a message and ask?

#36

The customer is not always right.

#37

I’ve downloaded tunes off Youtube and played them in clubs no one notices, this whole music has to be in this format crap is just pure elitism and I don’t care for it. If a song is good a song is good no matter if it’s 128 or 320 or WAV or whatever

#38

yeah big ups the youtube rips crew

#39

every album on the planet should be available to purchase digitally and the majority of the money should go straight to the artist or their family if possible

but the world isn’t perfect (not even halfway perfect)

and i still buy vinyl (4-6 a month) fyi

#40

I think the algorithms for the compression got much better in the last years. But I remember how shitty some files sounded on louder speakers 10 years ago. And sometimes you still can hear shitty files. Maybe it’s more about the mastering than the compression.
It’s not like I would go to the DJ and tell him he should play better files in these situations …