I jumped back in to vinyl and boy has music buying become more expensive! Not only because vinyl costs more than CDs or downloads/streaming, but I’m also buying so much more music now.
The biggest dent in my bank account is due to discovering music via youtube. It’s become my main method of music discovery. For one thing, as noticed by numerous music lovers no youtube, their "recommendations" algorithm has really become sophisticated within the past year or two. The recommended music/videos that show up as I follow link to link are absolutely terrific - one gem after another. For another thing, youtube is great for actually hearing rare or under-the-radar music. So many people have uploaded vinyl rips of hard to find albums, and so many alt/non-mainstream music shows up on youtube. And it seems almost everything is available on vinyl these days, especially from new artists.
So I keep going down the rabbit hole, hearing awesome albums which...sure enough...are available on discogs or the artist’s own site.
Recently I’ve been on a binge for late 70’s early 80’s Brazilian and Japanese funk/jazz/prog stuff. And lots of alt-smooth-vibe jazz. Some really great stuff coming out from new artists. I’ve been a music omnivore for a long time, but I’m amazed at how much wild and wonderful stuff there out there that I never even thought to investigate, or knew existed.
It’s a fun time to be a music lover (especially on vinyl).
I’m not a music "collector," or vinyl collector in the sense of "I must have all 3 versions of X album" stuff. I simply order based only on the music I want to hear. But even so my stack of records is starting to reach hoardish-looking levels (well, to me anyway).
They already have my money so they're looking for new blood. I have to laugh when the "owner" of thirty year old music makes YouTube "take down" a video using their music. Don't they know this is how new people get exposed to the music? Besides, I already own it (in multiple masterings and formats) and may just want to hear a song on the spur of the moment. Greedy dorks...
Ya know, I looked at the Better Records site. How do they justify those prices? Insane.... I sold my collection of about 1200 in 1986. Because CD's were gaining momentum and I need the cash.
Many of them were 'promos' I received through my job.
I could kick myself in the head now if I could get my leg that high. Every record I owed was mint. I'd be rich! Enjoy your addiction....it's a healthy one.
Like most, I too can't afford Better Records' Hot Stampers, but I have learned a great deal from Tom and his site. First his hot Stampers have lead me to find so very many great sounding records. Second, I've enjoyed all the equipment, setup, room tuning, and just plain great music recommendations. Forget the prices and just enjoy digging deep into the site!
I like jazz and rock and very few artist new stuff comes out on vinyl. The older stuff you can find on vinyl but I prefer newer stuff. Also with hires/mqa I don’t see a need for vinyl for those albums. if you think YouTube is good, you should check out roon. Roon gives you equivalent artists, upcoming concert dates, and history of the artist. I subscribe to tidal and the combination of roon and tidal (along with Terabytes of ripped music) its a hard combination to beat. I like vinyl too
I've actually found that most of the music I end up liking on youtube can be found on vinyl. And that includes almost every new artist/new album, whether it's alt-pop, electronic, jazz, smooth-vibe jazz etc. It seems to me almost everyone is releasing on vinyl these days, certainly many lesser known artists. (One thing is that I think people in to vinyl are among those who search out a wide array of music and probably discover many different artists, and the other is that I believe vinyl is providing a decent return-on-investment for small artists, vs streaming or anything else. If they can put out a tangible product like a vinyl record, they like that, their fans like that, and they get paid. My brother just mastered his first album and even he is putting it out on vinyl).
Are we talking about new bands or older bands (with potential reissues?) Bandcamp is a wonderful tool to explore if you have some patience and are willing to take risks. Most of those records are not "audiophile" quality, but neither are many of the reissues of old obscure bands-- though they are still worth listening to. "Original" pressings (whatever that means to you, depending on country of origin, mastering, etc) of some of the old obscurities has gotten obscene- This has forced me to finally confront and embrace digital in my main system for the first time (and, surprisingly, it doesn’t sound bad). The difficulty I have found is that the usual audiophile sources for high quality downloads don’t have a lot of the obscure stuff. So, it’s buying older CDs, some of which may have been taken from tape, and playing them via a CD transport or ripping them for a computer based audio system. I have been on many vinyl binges over the years---but I’ve started to slow down with prices in the high 3 and low 4 figures for some of these records. (I’m not talking about a Tom Port type record, but stuff that is just costly because in addition to being obscure, it is often collectible). Although that market has softened for some records, the asking prices for so-called VG+ are nuts. And since most of these records don’t have a big market anyway, they are usually reissued, if at all, by smaller houses, often in Europe, from digital sources, which vary considerably in quality. I’m glad I bought what I did when I did--not because of its financial value, but because it is unlikely that I could buy much of this stuff today at realistic prices, e.g. UK and German Vertigo Swirls, some of the early Italian and German prog and proto-metal, odd Japanese psych rock of the type covered by Julian Cope, the old Island pink labels, etc. I listen to these records, and in some respects, I’m simply a caretaker for them. I clean them well and enjoy them. Tracking down the ’best sounding copy’ can be a frustrating and costly venture, even for an otherwise modestly priced old record, partly due to grading inflation and the cost of shipping from other countries. Pure Pleasure has reissued a series of Strata-East label records that are a relative bargain; Speakers Corner did a great remaster of Herbie Hancock’s Crossings (an eclectic spiritual jazz/funk album). Some of the Polydors from the EU of bands like Blast Furnace are great b/c the sound is decent enough, given how difficult and costly it is to buy an original copy. I would like to go to the Utrecht show at some point- I think the WFMU show in NY is one of the best record shows extant. I know people like the record show(s) here in Austin, but I find very little since I’m typically chasing non-US pressings and even among the US stuff, the rarities are often painfully overpriced. I guess if you get lucky, you’ll find some bargains in the bins-- I did a sweep of stores in Brooklyn a couple years ago and bought quite a few records without spending a fortune. But, it’s rare that I find what I’m looking for (on my ’list’); rather, it is taking advantage of what happens to be available and grabbing it. One of my friends is constantly record shopping --even though he is a distributor and has a few small labels. Most of his ’finds’ are either dirt cheap obscurities or expensive obscurities that are priced well, compared to "market." It’s tough out there once you get beyond the standard reissue mill of audiophile warhorses.
Roon with Tidal is a great way to explore with links to Bio's, other albums by same artist, similar artists, different performances of same song , etc. It can become a rabbit hole as you suggest, but a very functional one where you can save songs along the way, make playlists, etc.
I find myself pleasantly surprised by the sound quality at times also..
I planned to move from my current squeezebox-based server to Roon, but that was slowed down by my dive in to vinyl which is taking much time away from my digital front end. I hope to try Roon soon.
Youtube has very little influence on me. What kills me is Discogs. If I see Chris Bellmen or Kevin Gray listed as the mastering engineer or cut by in the credits I end up buying it. I rarely regret it. But, I just keep spending more money. I can't keep up with both of these guys releasing new remasters. Kreig Wunderlich at MoFi isn't helping either. His stuff is stupid good.
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