- Tue Feb 04, 2014 8:17 pm
#9786
It's always about the music. I'm happy that vinyl sales are at such a high just now but I do have a lot of bitterness about it because it's being exploited by many people and companies and the prices have shot up to reflect that. I think 2008 really was the last year I could walk into a high street record store and buy 7" singles at £1.99 and £2.99. 12" singles at £3.99 and £6.99. Albums around the £15 mark. It boggles my mind. Where is the selection? Even now I walk into record stores and I wonder what is being bought.
Here in the UK we only really have HMV as a high street big media outlet that sells home entertainment, i struggle to see the appeal and it's a far cry from 2008 when people would be listening to music instore and there wasn't any variants or anything like that..........it was just music. Cheap, affordable, music. Between 2008 and 2013 something has happened. Obviously singles are dead, they're certainly not mass produced like they were and then we head into dangerous territory. The boom of online stores. These are products made to order to the fan bases that are smart enough to visit the web stores and of course..... the prices reflect that. Maybe It's just me being a fan of so many different kinds of music, including soundtracks which is why I own some releases made by these companies including the 2 releases by OWS...and yet I still don't feel as though things are improving on the whole.
I'm not ashamed to say I like chart music or popular music and I'm glad to see more and more chart music is being made available on vinyl. Like Eminem's new album. Headlines on many music sites about his album being released on vinyl and you wont find it cheaper than £20 online. It makes me laugh that until late 2007 his singles and albums were everywhere on vinyl, i could pick promos up so easily I could have picked his albums up on vinyl for pennies because Interscope churned out so many vinyl promos and then did the same with the retail. I picked his 2009 Relapse album up on vinyl for £9 delivered, that was the US pressing. I got the UK Polydor 180 gram pressing for £12.99 delivered. I love hip hop and when it comes to Eminem, I've literally got shelves full of 12" singles and 12" promos, albums, white labels, all official, no bootlegs yet from May 2009 to January 2014. Less than 4 years later we go from nice affordable prices, everyone is happy, plenty of promos and singles, so cheap we can and choose what we want when we want to now it's limited and it's expensive and it's a big event. For those young fans buying it really believing that.......if only they knew.
And that's it really for most people. If only they knew. I'm not some old person talking about 'back in my day'. I'm talking literally about a number of years I can count on one hand. I'm thrilled vinyl is so popular amongst people, it's a shame it's not for the right reasons but still......selfishly for me the ends justify the means because it is my favorite listening format...I'm glad people are learning about it and seemingly enjoying it although I have to say if I was given a choice right now. A choice between the popularity and sales of vinyl and say 1997-2008. I'd probably take any of those years, even 2008 because at least I could walk into an HMV or Virgin Mega stores and buy the music I liked on the format I like at a cheap price. Now all I see is reissues. AC/DC. Michael Jackson. Bob Marley. The mind boggles it really does. The price and selection of music available up until early 2008 far exceeds what is available today yet if we believe the figures........apparently those were the record low years for vinyl lol. 2005/2006/2007/2008 were not good years at all apparently and I don't think I've ever spent as much money on the format as I did those years.
So OWS, by all means give them their variants, but always keep the standard black version available and keep them cheaper and keep them mass produced. Those are the ones that are going to keep you in business, those are the ones that sit on record store shelves, those are the ones that do get bought by more people, they last longer, people get to know the company name, the logo, people learn to spot the releases from OWS more easily, they get accustomed to it.
