6 ms·

But why buy vinyl instead of buying CDs? I understand your point about listening to a whole album being preferable to singles, I feel the same way but I'd stil

by eterm 9y ago

But why buy vinyl instead of buying CDs? I understand your point about listening to a whole album being preferable to singles, I feel the same way but I'd still much rather listen to a CD than an LP.

agotterer 9y ago
A few years ago my wife bought me a record player for our anniversary. Since then I've been collecting used classic rock records. For me the difference between CDs and Vinyl literally comes down to the listening experience. Vinyl has a very distinct sound, big colorful covers, and a feeling of nostalgia every time you touch the needle to the record.
- ams6110 9y ago
  Same for me. The physical act of handling the record is more satisfying -- maybe just because it's bigger? I felt the same way about 12" LPs vs. 7" singles. The click when you put the needle on the record, watching it spin, even the smell all contribute to the experience. CDs/streaming has none of that.
alkonaut 9y ago
I think I can answer that: because vinyl now feels like timeless artifacts while CD's feel disposable and cheap. We thought vinyl was going the way of the dinosaur when the CD came, but now that they are back it feels like they are here to stay. Both vinyl and cds were bought to get the music the first time around. CD had no trouble displacing vinyl for the quality of the sound. But this time, when it's more about the cover art and the ritual of listening, than it is about the sound, I don't see how something could display the LP. I know a lot of vinyl buyers now that buy the albums but then listen to the streamed music. Just to hold the album but have the convenience of digital.
- glenneroo 9y ago
  I would even say that CDs really are somewhat disposable and cheap, they wear down after ~10 years and you often get scratches which cause your tracks to do the endless looping skip-skip-skip. I don't know how many DJ's I've heard play a scratched/skipping track, whereas Vinyl only skips if your tonearm weight is out of whack, the stage is bouncing, you accidentally bump the turntable (drugs are bad, mmmkay), or something physically gets on your record while it's playing. You can even see where e.g. the quiet sections are on your record, a bonus when mixing if you don't/can't memorize your music. I've been DJing various Techno genres with Vinyl for ~15 years and I've watched the scene shift towards CD and MP3 devices, yet turntables (Technics SL-1200 or thereabouts) are still almost always guaranteed to be at most dance venues (often with CD-DJs hooked up nearby). I also somehow prefer carrying my music around with me, it forces me to pick out ~50 pieces and then lug them behind me to the event, arriving all sweaty and out of breath because that shit's heavy. But it somehow gives me a sense of accomplishment even before I lay down the first record. And I know that my records will play, as long as the mixer isn't totally destroyed.
  - Dylan16807 9y ago
    If you're somewhat gentle with both, the CDs are going to last a lot longer.
    - glenneroo 9y ago
      Well UV light and oxidation cause disc-rot[0], so even if you leave them in their cases, they will eventually go bad. Therefore the only choice is keep them in a temperature and light controlled underground environment. Self-burned media tends to rot even faster. And my point was mostly that if you're DJing with them, it's hard to keep them in pristine condition. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot
cr1895 9y ago
12" x 12" artwork/inserts/posters/etc. vs. a small CD box. Many of the records I own are beautifully printed and satisfying to hold. Can be super informative too, with inserts/booklets (of course CDs can also have this info, but often not as nice). Analog is neat. To me, at least. There's a microscopic groove cut into some plastic in which a tiny chunk of diamond connected to a cantilever is pulled through, and the motion it has gets converted to a tiny electrical signal which gets amplified. To hear this at home on speakers or headphones is cool enough; to hear it in a venue with excellent sound is really something else for me. Something so powerful coming from something so minuscule. Maybe it's 40, 50, 60 years old, too. It's something that has a history, a past. I can listen to a record made in Brazil in 1968, that somehow found its way to Europe in my hands, or I can buy some sterile, boring CD copy of it. I can listen to my parents' very own records that they had in the 70s, that I also listened to growing up. I can even listen to classical records from before they were born. I can listen to a record from a country that doesn't exist anymore. Not everything got released on CD (or streaming). Plenty of reasons one might prefer vinyl over a CD.
- Declanomous 9y ago
  I don't care at all for the act of playing vinyl, but I really love the artwork. I occasionally buy records just for the art. I wish they sold the art separately because it's kind of ludicrous to spend all that money for something that is kind of incidental to the actual product.
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    Some bands I like sell posters, but I've only seen them at concerts. I can't find any examples on their websites.
  - __david__ 9y ago
    Nine Inch Nails did something kind of like that for their latest EP. They sold the art plus a flac download. It wasn’t large 12” art but it was bigger than a cd and… “interactive” (which really just meant “messy”). I would be totally down with more artists doing that.
aarmenante 9y ago
If you're into DJing older soul/disco/house/techno you can't get a lot of stuff on ITunes/Spotify. A lot of people end up ripping YouTube uploads for rare cuts. It's a distribution issue. You can't even get some of these songs as torrents ha. You have to find the physical record or find a high bitrate download.
Mediterraneo10 9y ago
> But why buy vinyl instead of buying CDs? I download most of the music I consume from torrent communities in FLAC. For those times I am inclined to buy the physical artifact, it is far better to buy the vinyl version as it has full-sized artwork and is more suitable as decoration in my home (google "Hang Up Your Old Vinyl Records!"). Like an enormous number of vinyl purchasers, I don't even own a turntable. I'd never play the vinyl, instead I play FLACs off a Raspberry Pi media center. I imagine most young people buying vinyl these days just listen off YouTube.
k-mcgrady 9y ago
The problems I have with CD's that I don't with Vinyl: - CD's scratch and then skip easily - CD's come in horrible plastic covers that break if you look at them wrong. - Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. - The benefits vinyl provides (large artwork and liner notes/ lyrics, posters etc.) don't all apply to CD's and at that point there's not much/any benefit CD's have over digital.
- danmaz74 9y ago
  > - Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. Are you serious?
  - k-mcgrady 9y ago
    Completely. Well, ok, not really :) I debated including it because it's not something I do very often. I do think it's true though. On a CD you hold the skip button and have to guess where you are (pretty sure none of my CD players showed a timecode when skipping but it's been a while). With vinyl you can see a physical representation of the length of the track and estimate much better (i.e. the solo is half way through so I put the needle in between these two lines and I should be close). NB: I'm thinking about actual CD players here, not your CD through iTunes or something where you can click to skip on a progress bar.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - Symbiote 9y ago
      The first CD player I used, which my parents bought in about 1988, showed the current time when you held down the "Fast Forward" button. I don't think I've ever owned one that didn't do this. Nowadays, a good professional CD player (or DJ equipment) will have something like an infinite-turn knob, which you can use to seek.
      - k-mcgrady 9y ago
jballanc 9y ago
Not sure if this is still the case, but 10-15 years ago most vinyl albums were mastered separately from CDs. CDs were subject to the horrors of the loudness wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war . So, in many cases, the vinyl actually does sound better, but not (directly) because of any difference in technology, just a difference in how the medium was processed.
- rfrank 9y ago
  It's pretty variable, but this is still the case for some releases. The opposite is also true as well, particularly with electronic music releases from small labels, with a low quality masters becoming the source material for the pressing. Music on Vinyl [1] is held in high regard for the quality of their masters/presses. [1] http://www.musiconvinyl.com/ http://www.musiconvinyl.com/
- gmarx 9y ago
  yes and I also recall 10 years ago that many reissues that came out on vinyl and cd simultaneously the vinyl version sounded bad
vmarsy 9y ago
There is a quality aspect regarding the "loudness war" : http://www.soundmattersblog.com/vinyl-vs-cd-in-the-loudness-war/ http://www.soundmattersblog.com/vinyl-vs-cd-in-the-loudness-... Making Vinyl sometimes better than CDs
soylentcola 9y ago
I don't buy a ton of vinyl, but when I do, it typically falls into one of a few categories: Either it's something newer that I just really love and want the big cover art and physical "object" for collecting and appreciation. Often times I'll be at a show and buy the band's new album instead of a T-shirt as a way to support the band I like. Those often come with download codes so I can still get a high quality digital version for portability. If it's something older I find at a Goodwill or a yard sale, I tend to buy it because it looks interesting enough to be worth the $0.50-$2.00 asking price. It's almost like buying some small novelty or other impulse purchase. It may be great. It may be awful. It may just be fun to have a bunch of old comedy records on my shelf. And if they are uninteresting, the cost is low so the risk is as well. And occasionally I've purchased the vinyl versions of albums I copied from friends' tapes in high school or downloaded illegally years ago. As with buying the record instead of the Tshirt at a concert, it's a way to support the band I discovered for free but has since earned my payment.

by eterm 9y ago

But why buy vinyl instead of buying CDs? I understand your point about listening to a whole album being preferable to singles, I feel the same way but I'd still much rather listen to a CD than an LP.

agotterer 9y ago

A few years ago my wife bought me a record player for our anniversary. Since then I've been collecting used classic rock records. For me the difference between CDs and Vinyl literally comes down to the listening experience. Vinyl has a very distinct sound, big colorful covers, and a feeling of nostalgia every time you touch the needle to the record.

ams6110 9y ago
Same for me. The physical act of handling the record is more satisfying -- maybe just because it's bigger? I felt the same way about 12" LPs vs. 7" singles. The click when you put the needle on the record, watching it spin, even the smell all contribute to the experience. CDs/streaming has none of that.

alkonaut 9y ago

I think I can answer that: because vinyl now feels like timeless artifacts while CD's feel disposable and cheap. We thought vinyl was going the way of the dinosaur when the CD came, but now that they are back it feels like they are here to stay. Both vinyl and cds were bought to get the music the first time around. CD had no trouble displacing vinyl for the quality of the sound. But this time, when it's more about the cover art and the ritual of listening, than it is about the sound, I don't see how something could display the LP. I know a lot of vinyl buyers now that buy the albums but then listen to the streamed music. Just to hold the album but have the convenience of digital.

glenneroo 9y ago
I would even say that CDs really are somewhat disposable and cheap, they wear down after ~10 years and you often get scratches which cause your tracks to do the endless looping skip-skip-skip. I don't know how many DJ's I've heard play a scratched/skipping track, whereas Vinyl only skips if your tonearm weight is out of whack, the stage is bouncing, you accidentally bump the turntable (drugs are bad, mmmkay), or something physically gets on your record while it's playing. You can even see where e.g. the quiet sections are on your record, a bonus when mixing if you don't/can't memorize your music. I've been DJing various Techno genres with Vinyl for ~15 years and I've watched the scene shift towards CD and MP3 devices, yet turntables (Technics SL-1200 or thereabouts) are still almost always guaranteed to be at most dance venues (often with CD-DJs hooked up nearby). I also somehow prefer carrying my music around with me, it forces me to pick out ~50 pieces and then lug them behind me to the event, arriving all sweaty and out of breath because that shit's heavy. But it somehow gives me a sense of accomplishment even before I lay down the first record. And I know that my records will play, as long as the mixer isn't totally destroyed.
- Dylan16807 9y ago
  If you're somewhat gentle with both, the CDs are going to last a lot longer.
  - glenneroo 9y ago
    Well UV light and oxidation cause disc-rot[0], so even if you leave them in their cases, they will eventually go bad. Therefore the only choice is keep them in a temperature and light controlled underground environment. Self-burned media tends to rot even faster. And my point was mostly that if you're DJing with them, it's hard to keep them in pristine condition. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

cr1895 9y ago

12" x 12" artwork/inserts/posters/etc. vs. a small CD box. Many of the records I own are beautifully printed and satisfying to hold. Can be super informative too, with inserts/booklets (of course CDs can also have this info, but often not as nice). Analog is neat. To me, at least. There's a microscopic groove cut into some plastic in which a tiny chunk of diamond connected to a cantilever is pulled through, and the motion it has gets converted to a tiny electrical signal which gets amplified. To hear this at home on speakers or headphones is cool enough; to hear it in a venue with excellent sound is really something else for me. Something so powerful coming from something so minuscule. Maybe it's 40, 50, 60 years old, too. It's something that has a history, a past. I can listen to a record made in Brazil in 1968, that somehow found its way to Europe in my hands, or I can buy some sterile, boring CD copy of it. I can listen to my parents' very own records that they had in the 70s, that I also listened to growing up. I can even listen to classical records from before they were born. I can listen to a record from a country that doesn't exist anymore. Not everything got released on CD (or streaming). Plenty of reasons one might prefer vinyl over a CD.

Declanomous 9y ago
I don't care at all for the act of playing vinyl, but I really love the artwork. I occasionally buy records just for the art. I wish they sold the art separately because it's kind of ludicrous to spend all that money for something that is kind of incidental to the actual product.
- Symbiote 9y ago
  Some bands I like sell posters, but I've only seen them at concerts. I can't find any examples on their websites.
- __david__ 9y ago
  Nine Inch Nails did something kind of like that for their latest EP. They sold the art plus a flac download. It wasn’t large 12” art but it was bigger than a cd and… “interactive” (which really just meant “messy”). I would be totally down with more artists doing that.

aarmenante 9y ago

If you're into DJing older soul/disco/house/techno you can't get a lot of stuff on ITunes/Spotify. A lot of people end up ripping YouTube uploads for rare cuts. It's a distribution issue. You can't even get some of these songs as torrents ha. You have to find the physical record or find a high bitrate download.

Mediterraneo10 9y ago

> But why buy vinyl instead of buying CDs? I download most of the music I consume from torrent communities in FLAC. For those times I am inclined to buy the physical artifact, it is far better to buy the vinyl version as it has full-sized artwork and is more suitable as decoration in my home (google "Hang Up Your Old Vinyl Records!"). Like an enormous number of vinyl purchasers, I don't even own a turntable. I'd never play the vinyl, instead I play FLACs off a Raspberry Pi media center. I imagine most young people buying vinyl these days just listen off YouTube.

k-mcgrady 9y ago

The problems I have with CD's that I don't with Vinyl: - CD's scratch and then skip easily - CD's come in horrible plastic covers that break if you look at them wrong. - Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. - The benefits vinyl provides (large artwork and liner notes/ lyrics, posters etc.) don't all apply to CD's and at that point there's not much/any benefit CD's have over digital.

danmaz74 9y ago
> - Skipping to a certain part of a song is much more difficult with CD's. Are you serious?
- k-mcgrady 9y ago
  Completely. Well, ok, not really :) I debated including it because it's not something I do very often. I do think it's true though. On a CD you hold the skip button and have to guess where you are (pretty sure none of my CD players showed a timecode when skipping but it's been a while). With vinyl you can see a physical representation of the length of the track and estimate much better (i.e. the solo is half way through so I put the needle in between these two lines and I should be close). NB: I'm thinking about actual CD players here, not your CD through iTunes or something where you can click to skip on a progress bar.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    The first CD player I used, which my parents bought in about 1988, showed the current time when you held down the "Fast Forward" button. I don't think I've ever owned one that didn't do this. Nowadays, a good professional CD player (or DJ equipment) will have something like an infinite-turn knob, which you can use to seek.
    - k-mcgrady 9y ago

jballanc 9y ago

Not sure if this is still the case, but 10-15 years ago most vinyl albums were mastered separately from CDs. CDs were subject to the horrors of the loudness wars: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war . So, in many cases, the vinyl actually does sound better, but not (directly) because of any difference in technology, just a difference in how the medium was processed.

rfrank 9y ago
It's pretty variable, but this is still the case for some releases. The opposite is also true as well, particularly with electronic music releases from small labels, with a low quality masters becoming the source material for the pressing. Music on Vinyl [1] is held in high regard for the quality of their masters/presses. [1] http://www.musiconvinyl.com/ http://www.musiconvinyl.com/
gmarx 9y ago
yes and I also recall 10 years ago that many reissues that came out on vinyl and cd simultaneously the vinyl version sounded bad

vmarsy 9y ago

There is a quality aspect regarding the "loudness war" : http://www.soundmattersblog.com/vinyl-vs-cd-in-the-loudness-war/ http://www.soundmattersblog.com/vinyl-vs-cd-in-the-loudness-... Making Vinyl sometimes better than CDs

soylentcola 9y ago

I don't buy a ton of vinyl, but when I do, it typically falls into one of a few categories: Either it's something newer that I just really love and want the big cover art and physical "object" for collecting and appreciation. Often times I'll be at a show and buy the band's new album instead of a T-shirt as a way to support the band I like. Those often come with download codes so I can still get a high quality digital version for portability. If it's something older I find at a Goodwill or a yard sale, I tend to buy it because it looks interesting enough to be worth the $0.50-$2.00 asking price. It's almost like buying some small novelty or other impulse purchase. It may be great. It may be awful. It may just be fun to have a bunch of old comedy records on my shelf. And if they are uninteresting, the cost is low so the risk is as well. And occasionally I've purchased the vinyl versions of albums I copied from friends' tapes in high school or downloaded illegally years ago. As with buying the record instead of the Tshirt at a concert, it's a way to support the band I discovered for free but has since earned my payment.