The vinyl revival can’t last ?

robbyrtp

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Your sample size is too small. Buy a few more.
Got plenty to try lazycat, I checked that the turntable is level and tone arm set correctly, The record sticks in exactly the same place as the last one.
To be honest I can’t be bothered with all the faffing about just to play a crackly old tune anymore so back to streaming (cheaper option) and CD from now on😀
 
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enrae8

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However, with vinyl, the buying game is much different. You can't have a "I want it NOW" attitude. You have to be willing to search, hunt, wait, have many sources you check etc. With vinyl, buying/collecting is an activity in itself which you must like to persevere with this format.

Exactly this^
I only listen about 10 hours a month- quality time,immersing myself in the music
I have more than enough to keep me going as long as I live - however there are plenty of artists and albums from the past that I once had or heard that I would like to listen to,now that I have a great system (IMHO)
 

DUVET

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Record fairs have far more interesting vinyl than your standard record shop plus all the stuff you would expect.
 
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Von Krolock

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A noted magazine reviewer recently said that he loves classical music on vinyl.
This was the confirmation that rested my soul - not that reviewer's opinions are any better than
anyone else but it was great to read it.
Much classical music is beautifully recorded - the classical music industry is by its very nature far removed from 'contemporary' music.
A good record player's ability with tone and ambience suits the sensitive and nuanced nature of much classical music.
The vinyl revival has fallen short of classical music but there's a wealth of good LPs to be found
if inclined to look.
 

montesquieu

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Record fairs are great for non-classical but they often have little more than a token show in the UK for classical. Oxfam used to have great classical but supply seems to have dried up. It's all specialist dealers now. At least in the UK - I have had some great classical stuff at the Munich Hi-End show.
 

StingRay

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Watched a few music programmes in TV on BBC 4 and as I came across a few artists that I liked as I often do I went to Amazon/eBay and tried to find some CD's by those artists. Found all of them and some were at good used prices so bought about 8-10 Cds .

After reading this i had a nagging feeling in my head and so looked up all of the same albums on Vinyl , result zero , none , nada none were currently available on Vinyl and in most cases they were never ever issued on Vinyl . So if that was my main source of music then none of these albums would have been able to be bough by me and heard .

I have no idea if the the revival of Vinyl will fade away but one things is for sure unless you are main stream or the coming thing then chances are your music is not going to be released on this medium . In my view this makes it bad for music , growth and variety . I do not want to channelled and directed at what I can listen to . I have not yet reached the stage of not wanting and actively searching for music that is different and I have never heard . If I want to do that then Vinyl is not going to be the way .
Yes less mainstream artist either don't release on vinyl or only small editions which often sell out fast.
But even cds are getting difficult or expensive if they are not available new. Downloads can be bought for around £10 usually, instead of 100s £ on a cd.
 

StingRay

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Record fairs are great for non-classical but they often have little more than a token show in the UK for classical. Oxfam used to have great classical but supply seems to have dried up. It's all specialist dealers now. At least in the UK - I have had some great classical stuff at the Munich Hi-End show.
I looked at record fairs and the nearest one to me was 140 miles, some place called Kettering, local record collector on here, had never even heard of it. Most classical listening seemed ti have switched to digital. If I bought vinyl it would be pre 80s Jazz and Rock.
 

montesquieu

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A noted magazine reviewer recently said that he loves classical music on vinyl.
This was the confirmation that rested my soul - not that reviewer's opinions are any better than
anyone else but it was great to read it.
Much classical music is beautifully recorded - the classical music industry is by its very nature far removed from 'contemporary' music.
A good record player's ability with tone and ambience suits the sensitive and nuanced nature of much classical music.
The vinyl revival has fallen short of classical music but there's a wealth of good LPs to be found
if inclined to look.
The sheer bewildering variety of Classical music, and relatively smaller numbers (I doubt very much if the 30 and 40 somethings who are snapping up new vinyl are buying much classical) make the classical vinyl market very difficult.

There are 'enough' reissues of stuff that has found audiophile fame - certain 'Living Stereo' recordings for example that show off systems' ability to do big orchestral - but the days when a new Brahms violin concerto from a big name was news are long gone. The classical market has, like other markets, fragmented into sub-genres. I'm sure a lot of the baroque lute or renaissance ensemble CDs I'm currently tracking down sell fewer than 100 copies - and you won't shift much vinyl at a small chamber concert. Same applies to people into, say, avant garde music or even heavily into Lieder. The result is very few new releases coming out on vinyl.

DG and others are putting effort again into marketing - the series with the Icelandic pianist Vikingur Olafsson being a recent example - with limited run vinyl part of the mix. But this sort of thing is really an exception.

For Early Music enthusiasts like myself, there is an additional complication: many recordings out there on vinyl (the sort of thing that, if say, it was some big warhorse classical symphonic performance would be re-released on 180g vinyl) pre-date the scholarship-based revolution that hit early music performance from the mid 70s onwards. Karajan's Berlin Philharmonic doing the Bach Brandenburgs (for example, has little appeal to today's Bach-lover).

The absence of this stuff, thogether with extremely limited release of current recordings means that early music on vinyl is something that's quite hard amass in quality. (Doesn't stop us trying of course). A big loss is Linn Records' sale to some Dutch company and the complete deletion of the entire catalogue on vinyl - such a shame as the recordings pouring out on CD and for streaming are some of the best early music currently being produced. (John Butt's Bach and Handel, for example, or Nigel North's Dowland).

I agree the market has 'failed' us but it's not too hard to understand the reasons why. A glimmer of hope is a few recordings I've picked up from Bandcamp - the 'classical' there is mostly on CD or download but a few artists are testing the waters with vinyl releases. Let's hope that gathers momentum.
 

Von Krolock

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Record fairs are great for non-classical but they often have little more than a token show in the UK for classical. Oxfam used to have great classical but supply seems to have dried up. It's all specialist dealers now. At least in the UK - I have had some great classical stuff at the Munich Hi-End show.
HMV have racks full of LPs with about a dozen classical records - I don't think they are
Andre Rieu recordings but they are similarly anodyne.
It's funny how wonderful recordings can crop up - the back of the rack in a charity shop
and relatives unwanted records.
One of my most treasured records was from a charity shop in Los Gigantes in Tenerife
for One Euro, complete with indecipherable but obviously positive Spanish biro on the inner sleeve.

Treasure.
 

Jules_S

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I was fortunate enough back in my "yoof" to be gifted a varied collection of classical music LPs from a wonderful lady who worked at a local charity shop with my grandfather. Her late husband (who was blind) adored his music, and after his passing, she wanted them to go to someone who would enjoy them and treasure them. To this day I've never listened to them all but I am still grateful for the wonderful gesture.

I also picked up a large-ish collection of classical LPs some years later from a local seller, to boost the collection. A number are of average or low quality but amongst my combined collection are a selection of fairly good Deutsche Grammophon, some nice Deccas, early EMI stereo etc and a fair bit of variety, so that will see me out even if I never buy another classical record. They're probably the sort of stuff that serious classical devotees would turn their nose up at, but they please me.

I do have fond memories of browsing in specialist record shops to find a few specifics. I suspect most are long since closed unfortunately
 

Von Krolock

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According to the established history, the classical camp were the most enthusiastic
for the new order .
Call it irony or circumstance - as you wish. The timid reviewer mentioned earlier
has a very valid point regarding the relevance of classical music on vinyl.
 

slavedata

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Went to see my local record shop yesterday about selling my LPs when I downsize house. he was keen having sold me a lot of them but specifically said not interested in the classical stuff it just doesn't sell.
 

Ian

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It doesn't really matter if the revival, whatever that is, lasts. There will always be stupid people who love it, love record shops, love a wonderful 50 and 60s jazz recordings that were just a record then but are now an utter joy to own. I am one of those people.
 
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