One Hundred Fifty-Two Posted January 23, 2014 Share Posted January 23, 2014 Don't buy expensive records bigbruise and smailtronic 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paintedinexile Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Seeing how much SRC charged for TOYPAJ, that was the last straw for me. Ever since then, I've stopped buying records all together, and have been buying off Bandcamp and iTunes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Seeing how much SRC charged for TOYPAJ, that was the last straw for me. Ever since then, I've stopped buying records all together, and have been buying off Bandcamp and iTunes. I wouldn't use SRC as an example of how every label works...Not every label (used loosely when referring to SRC) just started pressing records to take advantage of the "resurgence" of vinyl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nivek87 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I have it on good authority that Sony's cost to retailers for that record is $23 per unit... with no returns. Whoever's selling it for $20.16 shipped is either losing their ass, or knows a guy who can make things "fall off trucks." http://entertainment.kmart.com/bruce-springsteen-high-hopes/888430154612 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 http://entertainment.kmart.com/bruce-springsteen-high-hopes/888430154612 Showed his ass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nivek87 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 ( Y ) weinerdog and chamb117 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewlucas Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Lies! Lorde is sold out at Best Buy and now $42 on amazon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laralaurent Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 just a few years ago the digital album inserts were just an added bonus but have now added to the price increase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steventangent Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Increased demand in an industry with finite resources = higher prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Increased demand in an industry with finite resources = higher prices. What finite resources? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 The only (ONLY) tradeoff is that vinyl is a better investment than ever before... especially if you grab a particularly rare variant... or if your band decides they can't be bothered to do a repress. (Looking at you again, MGMT.) Whether you buy a new CD for $5 or $15, it will almost ALWAYS decline in value over time. With vinyl, there's a pretty good chance that you'll be able to sell most of your records for the same price (or more than) you paid for it down the line... especially if you keep them in nice condition and watch the market carefully. Best gimmick on this site. Records as investments: classic! i need to make a graph showing the return on records versus the stock market, real estate, 401(k), etc. smailtronic 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Best gimmick on this site. Records as investments: classic! i need to make a graph showing the return on records versus the stock market, real estate, 401(k), etc. There have been times where the rate of return on records was better than all these things. I could buy pretty much any fat wreck color, put on eBay, double my money. Point me to any other investment where you can reasonably double your investment with low risk in a month. Doesn't exist. Probably with vinyl as an investment (ignoring any moral discussions about flipping) is that 1) you can't buy in enough bulk to invest enough money (labels won't sell you 150 of an /300 press) and 2) it's a lot more work than clicking the but button on a stock trading app. But the problem with the system is not the rate of return, if you are smart about what you buy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylekrische Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Just to play devils advocate, things to consider: - Vinyl production plants. Few and far between. Those running at a capacity that can handle major releases are incredibly backed up. They start charging more money, costs the labels more to press there (especially if they're not willing to wait) and that prices is funneled down to the consumer to cover the added cost. - To add, it's not the label that's impatient here, it's us. How many times did people flip their fucking shit when RFC was late by a few days on a record? Totally out of their control and not their fault but major labels can't have this happening because their market would go nuts when it isn't on the shelves or at their doorstep so they pay the extra money to ensure it's done on time and you pay the price. - These "elaborate packaging" jobs that drive up the price were requested by the consumer. Remember when buying a CD or a record and the insert sucked? People whined about that constantly, made everyone up their game. You can get what you want but you're going to pay for it. - They charge that because we all download music all the time. It's really as simple as that. $15 a pop used to cover all expenses and advertising for a record no problem when it was selling a million copies. It's selling a hundred thousand copies now so the price has to go up. Sadly here, the ones that pay for it the most are probably the ones who buy most of what they download anyways but it has to be made up for somewhere. If you don't like this fact, it's very very easy not to support these artists/labels. Another thing that's part of a much larger picture here though that I think is harder to see because most of you are American is the economics of your country. You can be paid legally $4.25 an hour for the first 90 days if you're under 20. Even still I think a lot of states minimum wage is like $7.25 an hour? With the exception of the District of Columbia, no state will pay more than $10/hour minimum wage. That's quite simply below the average for the rest of the big players in the music market (Canada, UK, AUS, EU). So they charge these higher prices because almost everywhere else it's pretty normal. I don't really hesitate to buy a $30 record from the shop downtown and I jump at the opportunity to pay $25. This is also because your own mailing system decided to keep the rest of the world out of putting their money into your businesses by driving shipping costs thru the roof. I can buy a record in euros and ship it from France and it'll be cheaper than getting it from Buffalo which is less than 3 hours from my door here in Canada. That's absolutely insane. I think the record labels are aware of this and will make their money successfully this way but it's just as much their fault as it is the overall state of your country. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Maybe I should build a vinyl plant in china. I'll have monopoly money Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I'm not really sure the minimum wage argument is applicable here. The point is about the rapid increase of vinyl prices in proportion to the cost of other goods and services. If the minimum wage in America was $20 an hour I think there would still be a trend worth poking at here (why is physical music doubling while physical film media is relatively flat)? Overall some good points, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerseydave77 Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Major labels have a great track record of anticipating trends and consumer behavior to ensure the longevity of their financial models. Ha ha. This shit is a blip and will sink eventually. They see a retro fad and are taking the easy money while its on the table. BuzzersonKillwell 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylekrische Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Yeah i'm not saying this is the reason for the in rease. That arguement was more to touch on why Lorde is 24.99 before shipping and sold out on various retailers. It's just a small factor to the thousands that play into everything at work here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylekrische Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 I honestly dont see it going away. It seems to be the only format the basically die and completely resurge into a major player again. All media is becoming less and less physical I think it's going to work like gasoline. Prices go up and you think it's insane. Then it becomes the norm and goes up again. There are alternatives everywhere but there are still millions of people who prefer it and the music industry is already set up with the proper infastructure to maintain it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steventangent Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 What finite resources? There are only so many pressing plants that can only press so many records with so much PVC. They can buy more PVC, and they can add more shifts to a point, but I think a lot of places hit their ceiling. When smaller labels are waiting four months to have their projects completed because of Beatles represses, I'd say demand is outstripping supply at a higher pace than 10 or 20 years ago. topshelfsquad 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thebiglebowski Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 There are only so many pressing plants that can only press so many records with so much PVC. They can buy more PVC, and they can add more shifts to a point, but I think a lot of places hit their ceiling. When smaller labels are waiting four months to have their projects completed because of Beatles represses, I'd say demand is outstripping supply at a higher pace than 10 or 20 years ago. Vinyl plant congestion is something you hear a lot around the board and it's definitely a problem. I just don't see it pushing prices up. If anything, having them run at 100% capacity should push the price down (economies of scale). Typical supply/demand can't be blindly applied to a situation of individual batch-run products. It's not a curve, but a step function -- supply goes from zero (say for 4 months while the plant is booked up), to it's highest point (say, a batch run of 2,000), then down to zero over time (but retailers typically don't raise the price of music as their supplies dwindle). Typical supply/demand governs ebay prices a lot better than the retail side of vinyl. I guess it would be a different story if the demand of the vinyl plants caused them to start using it to leverage higher profit margins out of the people contracting them for vinyl. From the chatter on the boards, though, this doesn't really seem to be the case. Labels are waiting longer but not complaining about price gouging of the plants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steventangent Posted January 24, 2014 Share Posted January 24, 2014 Everything I've heard is the opposite, that it's costing more than ever for smaller runs of records. It probably doesn't affect labels that press a lot of stuff with the same plants - anybody with a well established relationship probably doesn't feel it as much. But it definitely costs labels a lot more to do it now than when very few labels regularly pressed vinyl and bands were doing it because it was cheaper than CDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nivek87 Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Lies! Lorde is sold out at Best Buy and now $42 on amazon. why does everyone love amazon so much? (not saying you are one), but even UO has Lorde for 12 bucks less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sacredheart Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 I honestly dont see it going away. It seems to be the only format the basically die and completely resurge into a major player again. All media is becoming less and less physical I think it's going to work like gasoline. Prices go up and you think it's insane. Then it becomes the norm and goes up again. There are alternatives everywhere but there are still millions of people who prefer it and the music industry is already set up with the proper infastructure to maintain it Vinyl isnt a major player in the music industry though. The best selling record still doesnt compare to anything else. I havent seen numbers for 2013, but in 2012 the best selling record only moved around 38-50K copies. While huge in our little neck of the woods of /1000 presses, that doesnt come close to what the best selling cd and download does. eight1echo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eight1echo Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Vinyl isnt a major player in the music industry though. The best selling record still doesnt compare to anything else. I havent seen numbers for 2013, but in 2012 the best selling record only moved around 38-50K copies. This. We probably sold that many copies of Adele in my store alone (not really but it felt like it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 25, 2014 Share Posted January 25, 2014 Repressing records that are shitty and/or are already available in mass quantities is what is fucking shit up. Like, Supertramp is dope, but NO WAY IN HELL do we need a repress of anything of theirs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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