Music Spinoff: Albums

[RedAngie]

Anybody still have and listen to their old albums? Or follow the newish hipster trend toward vinyl?

I still have about 30 old albums, some from the 1970s. I replaced many with CDs in the 90s, but held onto some albums that never made it to CD.

Maybe three or four times a year I’ll listen to some of them. My old turntable circa 1984 still works.

When I was a kid and younger teen I used to buy 45s, but all of them are long gone.

DH has about 25 cassettes and we sometimes play them too. Neither of us ever had 8 tracks.

 

[Kennywood]

Vinyl records outsell CDs for the first time since the ’80s​

More vinyl records were sold than CDs in 2022 for the first time since 1987, according to a report by the Recording Industry Association of America.

The news: After 16 consecutive years of growth, vinyl records now dominate the physical music industry, with 41 million albums sold, as compared to 33 million CDs.

Vinyl grew 17% last year, rising up to $1.2 billion, while CD sales fell 18% to $483 million.

Details: The majority of listeners are using streaming services to listen to music, with streaming making up 84% of recorded music revenue, the report said.

However, other digital methods of listening to music — such as downloading songs to a device — have decreased significantly, falling 20% in 2022. The RIAA states that digital downloads only accounted for 3% of the United States’ recorded music revenue.

The comeback of vinyl: After the rollout of the Walkman, CD players, iPods, MP3 players and modern music streaming platforms, it seemed like vinyl records were going to be a thing of the past. Thanks to the hipsters and people’s interest in “vintage” technology, vinyl records never really went away.

The Smithsonian states that in 2008, the popularity of vinyl started to rise again, and steadily increased from then. People started purchasing records again because of their collectability, nostalgia, artwork and music quality.

The COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to a vinyl comeback, during a time when live music was unavailable and people had more time at home to spend listening to an entire album, the Smithsonian said.

“Many audiophiles claim the format provides a warmer, more authentic sound compared to digital (though some would argue this is largely subjective),” according to The Verge. “Nostalgia also plays a part for those who lived through the golden age of vinyl, but younger generations are driving sales too, praising the format’s tangibility and artwork.

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/vinyl-records-outsell-cds-first-160357148.html

 

[Disneylover99]

My husband plays vinyl all the time. He will never part with his multitude of albums.

 

[soccerdad72]

I've honestly never been that big of a music person. My teenaged years were in the late 80's/early 90's, so most of what I bought in those days were cassettes and CD's, never vinyl. And now that I'm older, I never got into the "retro" trend of collecting vinyl.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I don't have any albums anymore, no. We moved when I was in my 20s and I left them behind in a milk crate. I hadn't listened to them in a long time; I moved onto cassettes. I don't go with the 'everything sounds better on vinyl' trend. It doesn't.

 

[Genie+]

One of my kids bought the new Gorillaz album last month. We put it on the hi-fi for a Saturday night family mini-party It was cold and snowy and we shared the music with a bottle of wine. Felt like a blast from the past!

 

[firefly_ris]

I am 39 and started using a record player on a regular basis when I was 11. It was my parents 1980 Technics SL-D2 direct drive table. At that time I just listened to my parents records and no one was selling records in regular music stores or anything.

When I moved out I took the table with me and still use the same one today -- done some upgrades over the years to the cartridge and a new rubber platter and such. I started collecting records once I was a teenager.

I used to be able to find really great albums at yard sales for pennies but over the last 7 or 8 years it's been slim pickins or ridiculous prices. Thanks hipsters....

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Anybody still have and listen to their old albums? Or follow the newish hipster trend toward vinyl?

I still have about 30 old albums, some from the 1970s. I replaced many with CDs in the 90s, but held onto some albums that never made it to CD.

Maybe three or four times a year I’ll listen to some of them. My old turntable circa 1984 still works.

When I was a kid and younger teen I used to buy 45s, but all of them are long gone.

DH has about 25 cassettes and we sometimes play them too. Neither of us ever had 8 tracks.

WHAT?? No 8 tracks?? How’d you miss that??

I still have a turntable as part of my Technics stereo system (that we mostly use for the TV), but I sold all my vinyl albums - and I had a lot - to a DJ at a yard sale. I miss the thought of them, but realistically, I don’t really miss them.

I have Spotify with Bluetooth speakers and headphones and I really enjoy the ease and convenience of that.

 

[mamamary]

I have a few albums at my mothers house. I know for sure my Grease Album and Sean Cassidy are there. She has this turntable, radio furniture piece which is where they are. The piece of furniture is from the early 1950s when she got married.

 

[Colleen27]

Yes to both, though my 14yo recently moved my record player out of my office into her gaming room so she and her friends can listen to records while they're hanging out here so for the time being, my records are at her disposal. We've got pretty similar taste - my old records are mostly NIN, Pearl Jam, Green Day with some older Bowie and The Doors and such thrown in - and both she and older DD have added to the collection since vinyl has gotten popular again so the total collection is a pretty good mix of old/new and rock/pop/punk/showtunes.

I never had many cassettes, since I got my first CD player in middle school, and ditched or digitized all the cassettes and CDs years ago, but the records I kept and use. I also use Spotify over a Bluetooth system in my office, and through an old Kindle tablet in the kitchen, but there's just something about records, and about listening to a whole album by a single artist, that just has a different vibe than streaming radio/playlists.

 

[fla4fun]

I got a turntable for my birthday last year, so I got all my vinyl out of storage in the basement and have been listening to it. I haven’t bought any new vinyl yet.

 

[Micca]

Vinyl records? There are a few...thousand here.

 

[tvguy]

I bought a turntable/cassette deck/CD player-burner/AM-FM radio a few years ago. Normally Christmas time is the big time for us to break out our old vinyl, but we didn't this Christmas for some reason.
I have vinyl.......many of it Disney.........from the early 1960's when I was a kid. And I worked in radio so I have lots of vinyl from the 1970s.
I don't think I have any duplication between my vinyl and CDs. My kids are 32 and 36.....because of me......grew up loving the Beatles. They were horrified a few years back to discovery I had 15 different vinyl and CD albums of Beatles music, all instrumental, NONE of it performed by the Beatles. We used the instrumental versions when I worked in radio. So they got me a greatest hits CD for Christmas, performed by the Beatles.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Back in the 50's/60's/early 70's, I had a collection of maybe 400 albums, all genres. In the mid 70's, I gave away ones that I knew I would never play again or did not like. I kept and still do have probably 200-250+ albums now, no player though. My last turntable was a Garrard.

 

[MIGrandma]

I have all my albums from my pre-teen and teen age years, plus I have all my Mom and Dad’s, and my Grandmother’s too. Also lots of 45’s, cassette tapes, CD’s and 8-track tapes too.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I also use Spotify over a Bluetooth system in my office, and through an old Kindle tablet in the kitchen, but there's just something about records, and about listening to a whole album by a single artist, that just has a different vibe than streaming radio/playlists.

I understand what you mean. But I had that experience growing up in the 60s and 70s. I loved not only my [vinyl] albums, but my parents’, and my brother’s and sister’s. We had a wide variety of music there, from 40’s stuff, which was my parents’ era, to show tunes, to older siblings’, then my own, hard rock and pop rock of the 60s and 70s, even some disco, etc.

So I started out with vinyl, then went to 8 tracks, then to cassettes, then CD’s - buying all the same albums over and over again, mind you then my stuff eventually joined forces with my husband’s, and we had a ton of music on various modalities. But truth was, the vinyl, to me, anyway, didn’t have as good a sound quality or ease of use that the others did. (Try playing one in a car!) That’s why I let them go.

I love, love, love the ease of Spotify. My Playlists are HUGE, and I have many. So easy to sort and organize. I can easily listen to a whole album if I want to, and sometimes I do. But more often I like to skip around, depending on my mood. In the car on my way to work I have to have upbeat music, for instance. On the way home I keep it mellow. I have a Work playlist that has a little something for everyone. I can find all of my Favorites on my Liked list. When I‘m working on the song threads here I can throw my headphones on and play whatever I want to my heart’s content from my bed at 2 in the morning if I want, lol, and it won’t bother a soul. To me, it’s so great to have almost any type of music you can imagine right at the tip of your fingertips like that. And the sound is amazing. But to each his own!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Who else can relate to this?

 

[luvthatduke]

Between DH & I we have a couple hundred, I would say.
Christmastime is turntable time in our house.
DS has grown up listening to records during dinner,
mainly Disney & other story time albums.
He has listened to my music his whole life & actually chooses
Dean Martin for background music while he games .
We have a couple of record stores (used) around
& I always enjoy the chance to browse & buy.
We have a newish turntable that plays a single album (or 45)
but before that we had my DM's 1970's era turntable
with the arm that could hold 3 albums.
I miss that one for sure...
Nothing sounded better than the "plop" of an album,
then the tell-tale scratch of the needle.

 

[Babs Johnson]

DW have about 50 albums, but we rarely listen to them anymore. The last time was probably in the early months of the pandemic.

In the early 1980s I probably had 500+ albums. Some were purchased because of one song and the rest of the album was disappointing.

 

[Colleen27]

I love, love, love the ease of Spotify. My Playlists are HUGE, and I have many. So easy to sort and organize. I can easily listen to a whole album if I want to, and sometimes I do. But more often I like to skip around, depending on my mood. In the car on my way to work I have to have upbeat music, for instance. On the way home I keep it mellow. I have a Work playlist that has a little something for everyone. I can find all of my Favorites on my Liked list. When I‘m working on the song threads here I can throw my headphones on and play whatever I want to my heart’s content from my bed at 2 in the morning if I want, lol, and it won’t bother a soul. To me, it’s so great to have almost any type of music you can imagine right at the tip of your fingertips like that. And the sound is amazing. But to each his own!

Oh, Spotify definitely has its place too, particularly with the decline and homogenization of terrestrial radio. I used to love "radio surfing", especially when traveling outside our local market, to discover music I might not have heard at home. I used to keep a little notebook in my glovebox where I jotted down stations I liked - each page was a different city/radio market - but with the consolidation of the radio industry most of that local flavor has been lost. Every station sounds just like every other station in its genre, and they're all playing the same familiar rotation of tracks that are trending within that genre. So Spotify has become my go-to for music in the car. It has some of the same problems - it is not a format well-suited to discovering new music unless it is by artists you already listen to - but at least it doesn't have commercials and you don't lose coverage as you travel. And you're right about the sound quality. My kids joke that one of the things I look for in a car is "jukebox on wheels" because I really do appreciate the combination of digital sound quality and a good system. But sometimes, at home, it is nice to just put on the Bowie BBC sessions and enjoy the analog imperfection of vinyl instead.

In the early 1980s I probably had 500+ albums. Some were purchased because of one song and the rest of the album was disappointing.

I think that's the thing I dislike most about the digital music era. Not the albums where the one song everyone knew was the only good one, but the albums where each song was a revelation and the best ones never made it to the radio. Or discovering those rare albums that you could happily listen to all the way through, over and over again. Now there's no reason to ever hear deeper cuts unless you go out of your way to listen, and I think artists know that and some put less effort into the tracks that aren't slated to be singles.