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Topic History of: Vinyl
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
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The Cat |
AH - Good old vinyl!! Every crackle and skip tells a story. I love the warm cozy feel of a gatefold on a chilly winters night. CDs are too clean and clinical. Vinyl has much more personality. |
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DJKZ |
I have been following this thread with keen interest as it is a subject close to my heart.
Firstly i share both David and Al's points for very different reasons and i want to set what i believe is the happy medium for both points of view.
1. Digital is the logical way for anyone outside of the major record companies to go and even for the majors it is in their best interests long term. However they do have the retailers to consider and have a certain loyalty towards the retailers that they would not jump 100% into digital at the moment. I have no such affiliations and have launched my label as a digital label.
2. Vinyl is the logical physical product labels can support because it is the only format which users cannot cost effectively clone so there is a certain value an authentic vinyl record release can have and as a result it grows in value.
3. Vinyl is the format i started my label with because i started in dance music and it was the format of choice for DJs. There is a certain 'fetish' element to vinyl which cannot be matched by any product at the moment.
4. Vinyl can be manufactured on demand if you are wise and know a few little tricks of the trade. However vinyl should be sold by the label/artist DIRECT from their website or from ebay or GEMM or Amazon. It should be considered a merchandise item and therefore should be released in the following manner.
A: ON demand prestige version. Released with original signed posters, comments, lyric-sheets, photos or any other 'merchandise' element at a premium. You can manufacture these at a cost of perhaps 20.00-30.00 GBP and sell for 50.00GBP. Only the ardent fans will snap this up and these must be hand made customised in some way so that they are limited to around 10 copies.
B: Once you sell out of these contact www.gzvinyl.com and master your production on demand run and obtain 6 test pressings or more. Then build up an advance order list of vinyl junkies who want your album/single and sell it to them on ebay alongside printed posters (not signed) etc or anything you can think of.
The above will cater for the minority fans or collectors who will buy your record and store it as a value added item.
5. Digital will get better and better and soon anyone will be able to make perfect copies of the digital single. CDs will become relics of the past and DVDs will rule the roost for 5 mins before the IPOD or its successor becomes ubiquitous.
6. In spite of this i predict that sale of music as an item in itself will not last 5 years before the Napster model of Ad sponsored music becomes the eventual market leader. At the moment Napster do not know how to make it work, but is currently like digital singles before Itunes took over.
I predict that some smart alec marketing company with quality advertisers will make a kick ass hardware player with the ads integrated in a clever way linked to a website of course will eventually crack this model and things will change again.
7. We may not like to hear this but music will become free and if you as a label are not keeping one eye on this model and preparing yourself for it you will not survive.
8. Vinyl will now become even more important when music becomes free because premium vinyl will bring a new dimension to life when digital music becomes free to the consumer. It will become a collectors product of choice and will hold much value.
9. There will be lots of money to be made from music still as the ad sponsored model will make google look like child's play because the amount of time people listen to music will explode.
This is what my crystal ball tells me. |
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david |
Al you are perfectly right to elect what is relevant as you are the consumer and it's the consumer who makes the decision.
If I may indulge a bit of a metaphor (partly tongue in cheek)
Horse and buggy are still the choice for some just like the motor car
and airplane is for others.
However, although they both serve the same purpose i.e. transport,
it's the car and the plane (and trains, trams & busses) that
transport the bulk of us around.
The world would have a very hard time trying to convince everyone
of the merits of horse and buggy - and of course there are merits.
There would be a lot less oil consumed and a lot less pollution -
but most people would feel it's kind of a backward step.
Vinyl Records require quite a bit of energy to get from manufacturer
to consumer .. firstly they require a complex manufacture process
and printing of labels/covers, then you have to organize transport
to get these physical products into the warehouse, and then
after your sales teams have convinced the retailers to order copies
of your masterpiece you have to get them to the stores on board
diesel trucks buzzing up and down the motorways.
You probably get my drift - it's costly and intensive with every step. .
It really is an antiquated way of distributing music and
getting a commerce flow.
That's not to say vinyl records are bad -
but when compared to what technology has given us -
with it's global reach distribution, transparent accounting,
e-commerce payment and unlimited product availability
it really is a time of fantastic opportunity for labels
& artists to reach consumers with their music.
In fact retail is probably the most threatened space on the block because
90 per cent of record shops are dead and the remaining 10 per cent
are clasping for life by selling "entertainment" in a broader sense.
Here are my plusses for going digital:
Yes to unlimited product availability.
Yes to Worldwide distribution -
Yes to reaching a global consumer marketplace.
No costly physical manufacturing or warehousing.
No chasing little record stores in the back of beyond for payment.
No horrible truck loads of returned stock.
No going broke because of over-runs in production
Records do have positives never-the-less:
Vinyl records do have a unique market position unto their own
and do attract "record collectors" which may be different to
"pay download collectors".
You do get a physical work of art to hold and admire
in your hands as opposed to an invisible audio file
inside your iPod or computer.
It can sit on your shelf at home and form part of
a wider collection just like books do in a library.
They can be traded for sums of money in perhaps
a way that excludes invisible audio files.
So there are good points all round - but for my dollar
and for the many benefits that I have listed
I still think pay digital downloads as the winning carrier
for selling and consuming music entertainment.
Same applies for films and archived TV programs.
David |
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Al |
I'm a 21st Century music buyer, and I prefer to buy vinyl over other formats. I know I'm not alone.
Yes, download sites provide more choice, but give me vinyl anyday. It's my choice of 21st Century music carrier. |
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david |
Dave I wouldn't go quite to those lengths.
We're living in the 21st century and communications and technology
have move vastly forward just in the space of a few years.
It is the product of today that music and films be distributed
over high speed internet and mobile networks.
It really does make perfect sense - As much as I like the
art/tangible aspect of vinyl record - their physicality -
they aren't a relevant means of delivering music content
in todays world. That's stating the truth - Just like how email and
electronic bill payments and mobile phones and SMS have changed
so much of how we do things from how we did things years ago.
Pay digital download singles and albums are the way now - because
these are the times we live in. Record stores may carry 5000 titles
on CD (and vinyl) but iTunes and the others carry over a million -
Choice, convenience and price make downloads the way
for consumers to buy their music and film entertainment.
This will become even more so the case once broadband usage
reaches critical mass.
7" vinyl is an artifact - and has merit - but is not a
21st century entertainment carrier.
David |
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