Tag Archives: vinyl

Some line-up.

In fairness.

Jenny Headen writes:

The first festival of its kind anywhere in the world, VINYL will present the people who made the records that would define not just a number of eras but also their respective cultures.

It runs from Saturday, 5 May to Monday, 7 May and will take place in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin. Additions to VINYL will be unveiled over the coming weeks.

Tickets for this unique music culture event go on sale this Thursday (March 29) at 9am via ticketmaster.ie

VINYL

 

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In case you missed it.

BBC Africa speaks with James G. Rugami, vinyl wheeler-dealer extraordinaire, helping his local wax and the people that love it ticking over.

Writes Auntie:

Meet James. James is obsessed with keeping East African vinyl alive. From his small market stall in Nairobi, he sells records to enthusiasts from across the globe.

BBC Africa

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The wax continued to rule all in 2016, as 3.2m LPs were sold last year in Britain, outstripping the number of downloads and matching streaming revenue.

This is the format’s best year since its initial decline became apparent in 1991, and a 52% increase on 2015’s total UK LP sales, according to the BPI.

Why? Apparently, it’s down to two things: the migration of older former enthusiasts and ‘young people’ driven to own the physical record after discovering music on streaming services.

READ ON: Record sales: vinyl hits 25-year high (Guardian)

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The problem with the “vinyl boom” of recent years has been that the demand has squeezed supply, with remaining vinyl factories being pressed (heh) to deliver more and more stock as demand for LPs returns.

That much has been explained in this article.

Imagine the relief to labels and suppliers, then, that the invention of injection-moulded vinyl records presents, unveiled recently by Dutch CD manufacturers Symcon.

Writes FACT Magazine:

In conventional vinyl manufacturing, the plastic is pushed on the grooves at an angle – but the injection-moulding method injects plastic straight into the record’s grooves, which copies the grooves on the stamper more accurately.

The injection-moulding method also promises to cut costs by reducing the energy used in the process by up to 65%, as it doesn’t require the huge amounts of steam currently used to heat up the PVC puck before it’s pressed between two stampers. The new system also applies no pressure to the stampers, which can currently only be used for up to 2,000 records before they become worn out.

Symcon says that injection-moulded records could be turned around in just two weeks, drastically reducing the current timeline of 12 to 16 weeks from cutting floor to shop.

There are still some hurdles to overcome, however.

Vinyl records are slightly more durable than the injection-moulded samples Symcon has made so far, and the material used for injection-moulded records is more expensive, at €0.45 per record compared to around €0.35. Testing the sound quality also isn’t easy – the conventional quality system for vinyl is not directly compatible with injection-moulded records.

Two weeks!

Madness.

Vinyl of the Future

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Back in 2010, Panasonic ceased production of the legendary Technics SL1200 Mk6 analogue turntable (top), reputedly one of the most durable and reliable decks ever produced, claiming ‘a  decline in demand for these analog products and also the growing difficulty of procuring key analog components necessary to sustain production.’

Since 1972, the company had sold 3.5 million SL1200 decks, beloved of DJs and vinyl aficionados the world over.

This year, with a current resurgence in vinyl, and following a sustained online petition, the SL1200 will return as the limited-edition SL-1200GAE.

In 1997, a special 25th anniversary edition SL1200LTD with gold plated accessories cost $1,200 (€1,070).

The cost of the latest iteration, to be released this summer is $4,000 (€3,570).

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Supply and demand, people.

(H/T: Oisín)

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In 1950s Russia, where vinyl was scarce, music fans salvaged discarded radiographs from hospital waste bins, using a special device to press the grooves of forbidden jazz and rock ‘n’ roll bootlegs into the surface of the thick plastic.

The radiograph ‘records’ were cut into a rough disc shape with manicure scissors and a hole was burned with a cigarette. According to author Anya von Bremzen, “you’d have Elvis on the lungs, Duke Ellington on Aunt Masha’s brain scan — forbidden Western music captured on the interiors of Soviet citizens.”

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