The Death of the Record Collection

sometimes it's nice to know your listening isn't being tracked and figured into an algorithm for a huge tech company

something defensive, a kind of Noah's Ark for when the digital flood comes? Picking the records, two by two, that you can save?

I mean, for me, actually, yeah! People have been thinking "this is how the music industry is always gonna be" since the days of Edison. Incredible to me that people automatically assume the digital/streaming ecosystem is going to remain intact & the same over the next 10 years or even 5. The earth might not get hit with a solar flare or EMP shockwave that obliterates the internet, but just because record companies, tech companies, and ISPs have created favorable conditions for most people to affordably consume a variety of music via streaming doesnt mean that those conditions are automatically set in stone.

a good friend of mine recently told me his tweeters had blown as everything sounded really shit.
he only ever listens to his vinyl.
he is not that tech savvy, and so i was concerned that the issue was not his speakers.
after a lot of emails back and forth, we decided to test this out.
i sent him a specific album in 320 that i knew would test this out.
after talking him through dropping the files onto a cd-r (yeah yeah), word came back that after he found a cd player in his attic, the album sounded absolutely fantastic, and clearly there was nothing wrong with the speakers.
record players are a lot of work.
i went through a phase of stressing re the degradation of my vinyl that i played as a teenager as i rarely changed my needle (had no knowledge of such things when i was 15).
and i was right to stress.
a lot of it sounds like shit when i put it on now.
thankfully most of the stuff i really loved i have replaced with their silver disc equivalents.

friend from back home has a $22k turntable+amps+speakers setup. obv sounds good but how he and my other bff listen to stuff sucks the joy out of it imo.
major drawbacks are:
the space where the speakers sound amazing is really tiny, basically only the middle seat on the couch. and if you're off the couch, it sounds v pedestrian.
not only can you only listen to stuff he has on vinyl, but he only buys the highest quality pressings. which means there's a lot of great albums we'd all want to listen to on that setup but can't.

I’m actually surprised by how durable my old vinyl has proved to be - many of my LPs sound fantastic after multiple teenage plays on a shitty all-in-one system with a coin taped to the headshell

(some have needed a real good clean though... and I’ve also read that a finer stylus profile is better at digging past lightly trashed grooves and accessing the music)

but yeah some records that I thought were completely (sonically) fucked in the 80s/90s have come up really nice on a decent system in 2020

totally agree that not having your listening fed into “the algorithm” is a big part of the appeal, so too the related feeling of not having your leisure activity tracked by marketing teams (and worse)

what do you use to clean ? trying to work out whether its worth buying a fancy cleaner

what's all this about aligning needles? mine just screws the cartridge into the arm and is held in place by, uh, magnets I think

a lot of my old records still sound awesome. I don't think they necessarily sound better than digital but they do sound...different

Bandcamp's lossless download options and lack of an algorithm is a feature not a bug.

very otm, big Bandcamp fan here

building a miniature vinyl museum of 1984-1996 indie rock for my kids to be confused by when I die

Thank you so much for articulating my hobby, Nabisco.

yeah also big bandcamp user, they definitely massage the physical media glands with the way their UI works and presents “your collection”

what do you use to clean ?

for cheap and cheerful second-hand purchases I use an old discwasher brush (not the new one which sucks) and some home brew fluid

for anything “special” I use this stuff called record revirginiser which is like a fancy version of the old wood glue method - it takes a bit of use to master but I’ve had records that have been cleaned in a proper RCM that still crackled and popped, and this stuff has improved them outta sight - I guess it works out to a couple of bucks a record but for that’s worth it to have my old copy of Low sounding pretty good

what's all this about aligning needles? mine just screws the cartridge into the arm and is held in place by, uh, magnets I think

I'm kind of tired of collecting physical music. I have fucking way too many records and CDs. My record player is fucked and getting it fixed will cost a lot. I bought a Linn lp12 off eBay with a work bonus years ago and it did me well but now there's a loose connection in the tone arm and I just can't be fucked with it. What's the point of it all. I guess my wife dying taught me that. She loved collecting things. Postcards, Victorian photos, music. Now what do I do with it. It's just stuff. everywhere.

I bought a record tonight! Why? I guess because I thought the band was cool

Plus vinyl these days mostly sucks shit. So many shite pressings

I just need some kind of rack for all the CDs flopping around in the center console area thing of my car. I don't want to use one of those organizer sleeve things, I wanna keep em in the jewel cases and cardboard sleeves... but it's hard to tell by touch alone, groping blindly as I drive, which CD is which.

Someone cruel and insightful once wrote that the great marketing triumph with Gen X is that they persuaded us that we have to be archivists of everything we love. Hence my shelf of shitty soundtracks and compilations bought for that one Throwing Muses track.

I, too, have the Matter of Degrees soundtrack CD

Yes I think I subconsciously picked that up I even said to my wife a few weeks ago when we were talking about the pointlessness of collecting physical objects, at some point I aimed to collect every good punk record that ever existed, but why. It doesn't matter anymore

I am sorry you had to go through that colonel

Yes I think I subconsciously picked that up I even said to my wife a few weeks ago when we were talking about the pointlessness of collecting physical objects, at some point I aimed to collect every good punk record that ever existed, but why. It doesn't matter anymore

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, March 5, 2020 8:37 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Maybe not to you. I still enjoy buying physical media despite my awareness of its folly and pointlessness*. There are a lot of reasons for this, but the two big ones are:

1. Physical media (especially CDs, which I increasingly prefer) are dirt cheap, and as long as you have it in your genes to collect something and need to work that habit into your budget, it may as well be something you can currently buy for less than a dollar at a Goodwill and not, like, vintage wine, Star Wars memorabilia, or craft beer (yes, I know people who collect craft beer, maybe you do too). It's a largely harmless hobby. I have no kids, don't plan to have kids, and don't really care what happens to my collection when I die (as I doubt even libraries will be interested in acquiring such a collection by that point). I've had my fun, throw it in a dumpster if no one wants it.

2. I still enjoy the serotonin blast of this particular form of retail therapy and, again, it isn't hurting anyone (see above), in fact, when I buy new things from Bandcamp or at shows, it helps artists and labels who are currently being crushed by streaming services. If the day comes that I can pass a VG+ copy of Technique (which I already own) in the dollar bin and not feel the least bit tempted, fine, but that day has yet to arrive. When it does, I suspect my life will be poorer for it.

*If we're going go get all existential about it, what isn't pointless? If I have disposable income, the only thing I often choose over music is an experience of some kind: saving for a trip, going with friends to a waterpark, starting a garden. But even these things are fleeting, right? I don't remember half the movies I've seen in a theater. There are a million ways to spend your days on Earth, I just choose to continue spending mine exploring music and buying CDs and records. I don't feel ashamed of this. I don't care that some people prefer streaming, but I don't particularly enjoy being looked at like some pitiable weirdo stockpiling vintage printers or something, especially by people who once took just as much pride in their own collections but have now, for various reasons, given in to this new (totally boring, largely evil imo) model. So much unnecessary darkness itt. Just one more example of the nefarious way streaming has taken so much of the fun out of being a music lover.

a) naturally my excellent essay in the end-of-decade wire (jan 2020, no.431) covers every aspect of this, demolishing the bad arguments deftly while pithily consolidating the good ones
b) it seems rigorously appropriate and yet also entirely ironic that i can't link it so you'll have go buy the physical edition sight unseen to find out for yrselves

xpost CP - yeah I definitely have similar feeling sometimes and I can only imagine those lines of thinking are magnified

hey Paul you might want to consider what people are going through in life before you make judgements

Paul otm re the appeal of CD collecting especially

Worthwhile records are v tough to find cheaply now thanks to Discogs etc, but I still routinely make incredible CD finds at thrift stores because people are just getting rid of them indiscriminately.

I have 2 kids so a lot of my hobbies have been on hold for a couple years. Even if its something minor and pointless it's cool to get back into, because it's been a while since I've given myself the opportunity to ~care~ about something pointless like record collecting. It's therapeutic to me. I still love the experience of thumbing through the new arrivals at the shop and I do think it makes you appreciate stuff in a way that's difficult to do in an era where everything's online and accessible in seconds. Like stumbling across a copy of The Flat Earth by Thomas Dolby, a record I liked but hadn't heard in years, taking it home and blasting it out loud on tower speakers, listening to music as more than just background noise. It's fun and worth the five bucks. And I like the weird personal touches you get. For example I have a bunch of XTC records and they must've all been from the same person because the labels on the LP have certain songs highlighted, presumably to mark their favorite tunes, many of which are among my least favorites on the album, but now I hear them and think "well at least the last guy liked this song". I have LPs by King Crimson and the Moodies with bongwater stains on them. I dunno, I love that stuff.

what are they FOR

for me vinyl is for listening to. it's really pleasurable to me to flip through records and find something i like, or be surprised by something i wasn't looking for. i don't tend to sit and listen, though - i'm usually doing other stuff.

I share that pleasure, for the twenty minutes a week I can indulge it — but I meant "what are they for" almost more in terms of the organizational purpose of the thing, like what rubric should dictate the comparatively small number of records I would buy versus the much vaster number I'd listen to. (When I shop based mostly on the pleasure of putting a record on at home, I wind up cruising toward an archive of extremely mellow housework-and-reading music, which ... is not a terrible thing, I guess.)

Colonel Poo: I am incredibly sorry to hear about your wife. Here's hoping that as time goes by some of that stuff will cease to feel entirely pointless and can be a pleasant reminder of the person who loved it.

collecting records has been one of the only joyful things in my life over the past three years (that and legal pot). I"m not giving up either of them though I have cut back on both.

Mr. Poo: I"m sorry to hear of that as well. I think of these things all the time.

i was thinking at some point about selling off most of my record collection but then a few months ago when i bought a new needle for my record player Amazon accidentally sent me a five pack instead of one, which i think is going to keep me in the game until my kid heads off to college. which may be a better time to get a fresh cash influx anyway.

well, that's a result omar !
and CP : totally get where you are coming from sir xxx

we have to be archivists of everything we love

No, we should be curators of what brings us joy, and eject all else from our lives. Build a library, not a collection, with the caveat that no one else will really care about your library after you're gone.

what rubric should dictate the comparatively small number of records I would buy versus the much vaster number I'd listen to

A mate of mine has been systematically selling his CDs and buying LPs - but only of his most cherished music that he'd want to hear again and again. Less is more. (He still has alot of LPs, mind.)

the idea of an essential record collection is very appealing to me - not necessarily based on “the canon” but one where you only keep stuff that’s like 8/10 or more in personal significance/resonance - with CDs I was/am much more inclined to keep that merely okay ACR album floating around indefinitely, with LPs it’s just taking up space

^^I agree with that, I almost never buy LPs I haven't already heard but I'll pick up any bargain bin CD if it piques my interest

mainly i buy disposable trash house 12”s, the occasional jazz record (wynton kelly my current obsession) and am slowly getting every classic reggae and lovers rock single i can think of.

and i play them!! :)

if anyone hates their record collection and wants to sell, please let me know. My records are all I have. No friends, no hope, just records. So let me know if you want to sell me some. I've got a massive wantlist and it seems like these records are just making you all feel so bad.

I bought vinyl in 2004-2009 period, then stopped due to a couple of factors, in favor of CDs, then downloading, then streaming. Right before my best friend died a couple years ago, he got into vinyl and then left me his turntable and records. I got so into vinyl this time around I bought new speakers and a new (used) amplifier and have my eye on a couple of other upgrades. I buy on average 5 or so mostly used records every week. Sound quality is the biggest issue for me - I would have to spend orders of magnitude more to get a streaming or CD setup to sound as good and really am enjoying vinyl this time around.

I'm not super picky on pressings, etc., but definitely have a preference for used vinyl for anything that was recorded in analogue.

What's all this talk of binning? No charity shops in a lot of places?

Good thing about having a collection is seeing how incomplete it is, so an extra reminder to buy more. Perhaps a better reminder than my shopping lists.

Streaming isn't much of an option for me, we've had at least 5 people try to fix the internet connection before the weather keeps obliterating it. This is happing nearly every year for a long time, but this is the worst time yet.

Another person will try next week, fingers crossed!

I'm kinda fascinated by everyone's personal genre splits between formats. The only reason I started buying vinyl was that when I first worked in a record store, in 99, the $2 bin was consistently full of new-wave records — so at least a third of what I have is, like, scuffed-up Vapors and XTC and B-52s albums. Another good chunk is early-00s electro 12-inches, because I lived near a shop that focused on them. It's really only now that streaming exists (and now that I never get to browse an actual record store) that I'll want to purchase an album and think of vinyl first — maybe stupidly, in the case of older stuff, because damn are used CDs cheap as dirt. (P.S. It is interesting coming back to ILX after some absence and seeing how life has changed and I suspect that eventually we are all going to owe an apology to Gale Delongchamps.)

the best parts of my collection are representative of certain stores that i used to live near. in 2006 i was in chicago for a bit and lived around the corner from a place with excellent italo and kraftwerk/ymo/telex kind of stuff. in dc, where i met my future partner, a record store near her place had excellent, inexpensive gospel (lots of old nashboro stuff). seems like she built up her gospel collection in a crazy 6 month period where that's all we listened to

good to see you btw nabisco (i used to be Z S but i think that was also after your time)

Indeed, hello again Nabisco and hope you're well!

Colonel Poo's posts were slightly echoed in my brain a few weeks back, when I had a sense of just ending up surrounded by 'information' broadly conceived in the end and...that's it. My collection as such fluctuates but is much smaller than it was and I'm happy for that. It will, at least, be something idiosyncratic for someone to ponder at a future date, I suspect.

Like omar, I too subscribe to Criterion but also regularly get their discs -- I pretty much try and pick up a new one from each monthly batch they announce, there's almost always something. I'm much more pitiless about my tv/movie hard copy purchases; nearly all of them exist in binders with me, and they've all held up very nicely. And again, they're there. (I do keep all the Criterion booklets, obviously.)

Right now, I pretty much have been concentrating all my CD purchases on strictly archival material with detailed liner notes -- essentially, research tools, much like my collection of books on music. I have occasional flashes of random completeness -- for instance, I pretty much assiduously dedicated myself for some months to literally buy every last CD I could that Coil put out, along with a number of the shadowy releases since Peter died, partially because their story is now out of the hands of its creators, and there's a real sense of archiving something, somehow. But otherwise, it's pretty much things like "Oh another Bob Stanley comp? Great!," the very occasional hard copy purchase of the work of an old favorite and beyond that -- Bandcamp. Bandcamp all the way.

No, we should be curators of what brings us joy, and eject all else from our lives. Build a library, not a collection, with the caveat that no one else will really care about your library after you're gone.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing

this talk of curation, librarianship, my dad was a librarian, what i'm doing seems to me to bear no relation to it. there's no sense of the public good in what i do, there's no guiding principle, it's a big pile of random shit that, again, will vanish almost instantaneously when i'm gone because nobody else can really be expected to care

i really love my pile of random shit, cloud nothing can do for me what it does, but there's no sense of permanence to it, it just grows organically until like any system it catastrophically fails

nothing i "have" has any value to me except its use value, but i want to reserve the right to decide when that use value is exhausted.

The concept of curation is not as an objective cataloguer but rather making an honest decision about what has value to you or brings you joy. By all means, we should keep things until that "value is exhausted".

Is it a particularly 21st century problem of feeling the need to obtain "everything" by an artist / in a category / of a genre? Because there was a time not long ago when such an idea was more or less impossible. We didn't even know what was missing, or how to find it if the local store/ flea market / etc didn't have it.

Discogs definitely exerts a curation pressure on me as a record buyer

Interesting that when the topic of vinyl comes up, people start posting about turntables and needles. I recall reading somewhere that the vast majority of buyers of vinyl these days don't even own a turntable. I don't. I buy vinyl for the decoration, but I torrent FLACs to actually listen to the music. (And apparently a lot of younger people today buy vinyl for decoration, and then use YouTube to actually listen to the music.)