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To borrow a joke: how do you know someone doesn't listen to LPs? They'll fucking tell you. The funny thing is that most folks who need to tell everyone that li
by peteforde 4y ago
To borrow a joke: how do you know someone doesn't listen to LPs? They'll fucking tell you.
The funny thing is that most folks who need to tell everyone that listening to records is dumb because they sound bad are almost certainly listening to the vast majority of their music over streaming services. So you have albums that are being mastered to survive MP3 compression being delivered over lossy streams that 100% have not being signed by the artist and don't contain glossy, album-sized photographs and hard copies of the lyrics.
Meanwhile, LPs are legitimately collectable (limited pressings absolutely accumulate value in the same way other collectables do) and are often mastered or remastered for full spectrum fidelity and pressed on extremely heavy vinyl stock. Much of the "sounds bad" critiques are only truly applicable to mass-market pop music LPs that were pressed on thin+cheap material and sacrificed quality to fit more minutes of music per side as a way to keep costs low.
When you buy, for example, an LCD Soundsystem LP and A/B it with the same tracks on Spotify, it quickly becomes clear that maybe we're not so dumb after all.
- goosedragons 4y agoIf you care about sound quality there are many streaming services offering lossless quality, Apple, Tidal, Amazon, etc. There are places you can buy lossless tracks as well. You never have to worry about them getting dirty.
- peteforde 4y agoThe point I was trying to make is that the folks who feel compelled to explain why vinyl is dumb (each one is the first to offer this opinion) usually start by telling us that vinyl sounds terrible. They are unaware that a) it doesn't and b) Spotify does. Which is fine, but you'll notice that you rarely see LP collectors expend energy trying to tell streaming music enthusiasts that the entire premise of their enjoyment is flawed.
- Symbiote 4y agoMaybe it's changed in the last 5 years, but until fairly recently many vinyl collectors would go out of their way to tell anyone else that CDs didn't have the correct ambiance, sound quality etc.
- goosedragons 4y agoVinyl people claim all the time that vinyl sounds better. Usually about the "warmth" or "better mastering". You do it in your post above. The post you replied to doesn't even mention streaming or Spotify. Maybe they are talking about CDs or lossless FLACs or lossless streaming or reel to reels or any format that offers higher quality sound than vinyl?
- peteforde 4y agoConsider the order of operations: the article that brought us here simply declares that LPs are now, officially and finally, out-selling CDs. I responded to a top-level comment of the "LPs are bad" variety - perhaps my only real mistake. In other words, I was reacting to someone whose reply to "LPs are popular" was an unprompted "actually, they suck". I'm not actively seeking out digital music listeners to proselytize records. We tend to not do that because they already have a hard time keeping up with existing demand. You might not like hearing that most music is mastered for lossy compression, but it doesn't change that it's true. I suggest that you don't confuse "better" mastering (subjective) with mastering for a target medium, which is a technical process. Anyhow, we all know that LPs only get warmer when you play them on a tube amp. Yes, that was also a joke.
- devnullbrain 4y agoI'm aware that it's an inescapable fact that vinyl degrades with each listen. On the bright side, if I pay $30 for the cheapest copy of This Is Happening on Discogs, I can be certain that nobody bothered to spin it during the 13 years since its pressing - it's mint condition. I'm also aware that Spotify sounds bad. That might be part of the reason I don't use it? I think you'd benefit from a world view with more nuance than tribes of enlightened LP buyers versus ignorant Spotify subscribers.