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I think a lot of people are romanticising about vinyl - Don't get me wrong, I love records, have spend literally 10s of thousands of pounds on collecting them, and work in the vinyl industry as well.

That said, in terms of basic economics and the cost/benefit ratio there is just no way that the production of vinyl will continue indefinitely. It doesn't make me happy to be so pessimistic about it, but I'm a pragmatist and a realist...yes there is a niche market, but I think there will be a tipping point soon where the margins from distributing vinyl will be so slim that almost all distributors will have to rethink or swim...


Incidentally, to compare vinyl's current situation to competing with 8-track/cassette/CD is not that relevant - you couldn't produce perfect copies of an 8-track or a C90 for £0 pounds and distribute it worldwide for fractions of a penny.

Maybe it is a dying trend on a general basis but definately not dubstep. People identify vinyl as being a key element in the scene. But for other genres I would probably say yes as mp3 dominate over cds and vinyl.

yeh i agree, like pop music is obviously nothing to do with vinyl, in anyway IMO, but dubstep, hiphop, kinda dnb all are.

But i still think that its only a matter of time till we all give up on vinyl.

kwality wrote:the writing was clearly on the wall

people need to recognise that you can answer this question with your head or your heart.

it pains me to say it as someone who has invested 15 years to digging and many more thousands of pounds, but i think it's going into a slow but inevitable decline.

vinyl is the way

Na, thems be fighting words.
Dead my foot.

ThinKing wrote:I think a lot of people are romanticising about vinyl - Don't get me wrong, I love records, have spend literally 10s of thousands of pounds on collecting them, and work in the vinyl industry as well.

That said, in terms of basic economics and the cost/benefit ratio there is just no way that the production of vinyl will continue indefinitely. It doesn't make me happy to be so pessimistic about it, but I'm a pragmatist and a realist...yes there is a niche market, but I think there will be a tipping point soon where the margins from distributing vinyl will be so slim that almost all distributors will have to rethink or swim...


Incidentally, to compare vinyl's current situation to competing with 8-track/cassette/CD is not that relevant - you couldn't produce perfect copies of an 8-track or a C90 for £0 pounds and distribute it worldwide for fractions of a penny.

no, i think you are right in terms of cost being a major factor, especially on the production and distribution side. vinyl nerds will pay exorbitant amounts of money, so it's not the demand side that will give up.

the difficulties are gonna be the cost on supply side, and the shipping costs worldwide. i think regardless, people will still collect (as i said, perhaps the market in old vinyl will continue).

all that said, i think the assumption that things will continue as they have been in our lifetimes in terms of relative wealth and ease of travel are changing FAST. and i think that is definitely something to think about in terms of how we look at our music mediums. if anything, that will be the deciding factor, for both supply and demand side of the vinyl equation.

sorry if this is rambly; still having my coffee.

sapphic_beats wrote:
all that said, i think the assumption that things will continue as they have been in our lifetimes in terms of relative wealth and ease of travel are changing FAST. and i think that is definitely something to think about in terms of how we look at our music mediums. if anything, that will be the deciding factor, for both supply and demand side of the vinyl equation.

Couldn't agree more. The last year alone has been a major lesson in these facts for me.

the worst that can happen is a shortage of resources (plastics for the medium and fuel for distribution among other things). the demand will never dry up so the supply wont either.

to talk about it being "impossible" to distribute vinyl in the future, is to give up in other terms - such as our survival as a human race. it stinks of despair

we already have the technology to sustain our logistical needs in a non-envoronmentally-impactive manner, its just a matter of people waking up and starting to take action to implement these technologies into our daily lives, because obviously our 'governments' and 'corporations' won't.

relying on the 'shipping' industry and all these other industries to dictate for us 'whether or not vinyl is feasible' is ridiculous

and someone will figure out how to turn hemp into records

i want to say a lot more but... i dont know if anyone's even listening lol

You can make pretty much anything outta hemp

dubstep keeping the vinyl trade alive.

i found a link to this article on the submerge website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 3656.story


makes for an interesting read.

geiom wrote:big up the C90 mandem !

lol

well, C60 and below more like, those 90s drop some quality for space

thecrane wrote:i found a link to this article on the submerge website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ ... 3656.story


makes for an interesting read.

The resurgence is being led not just by Baby Boomers nostalgic for gatefold album sleeves and the pops and scratches of favorite records, but by college-age consumers discovering the elaborate artwork of vinyl-album packaging for the first time, and entranced by the grittier, less-artificial sound quality.

"We're seeing the [vinyl] resurgence in all walks of life: from 50-year-old guys who want high-quality product to match their high-end stereos to 19-year-old kids who are sick of the minimalist Ikea design that has plagued dorm rooms for the last decade"

"How many commercials have you seen that involve a DJ spinning a record?" he says. "Repeat with incidences on TV shows, movies. It's being presented as a cool thing, not anachronistic, which was the late '90s attitude."

wow, who the hell are these idiots?

didnt get too far

at least its nice to see some attention

thanks for sharing hehe

actually the real question is how labels will market their music in the future. Vinyl has always been and nowadays is even more a niche market. The problem is that most people don't really care about how music is presented, that's why CD sales have been on the decline and people listen to music on their ipod or cell phones these days.
I love vinyl to death, I have spent an insane amount of money on vinyl and will continue to do so as long as I can afford it. However the profit you make out of a vinyl release is minimal. I mean major labels now sell their CDs with a bonus DVD that is basically free and still make tons more profit than with a vinyl press of the same album.
Being realistic, vinyl will die out sooner or later as it will become unaffordable to produce. I don't know how many copies a Skream or Benga 12" moves but I doubt it's several thousands. I appreciate the Dubstep artists and labels that still release vinyl but I think this won't be the case for many years to come. When you go to a club you rarely see a DJ spin records, about 95% of them have switched to Serato, Final Scratch etc. no matter if it's Hip Hop, Dubstep, DnB, House whatever. They might still buy records but still it's not a whole lot after all. Btw, most turntablists have switched over to Serato/Final Scratch these days as well. A couple years ago, a reputable artist like D-Styles would sell several thousands of their scratch records with ease, these days they're happy if they get rid of the initial press of 1000 or maybe 2000 at most.
People on here will for the most part say that vinyl is alive and going well because Dubstep is a relatively new style of music and people are still excited about it. In Hip Hop nothing really exciting happens anymore, so the interest in vinyl is decreasing. I'm a Hip Hop head myself and I rarely buy new stuff anymore because I don't like what I hear for the most part. The end result is limited ultra over priced releases from reputable Hip Hop artists like those Lord Finesse records that were limited 200 or 300 copies and were sold for $80 a piece. Nails in the coffin, nails in the coffin

on the plus side the cost of oil is down like 50% from August...