April is my favorite month: Major League Baseball’s opening day, my birthday and Record Store Day (April 18). It’s absolutely great to see people excited about purchasable music in a physical form.
In 2015, from a manufacturing standpoint, vinyl’s is not an easy format to jump into. Replacement parts are nearly impossible to come by one they break, which is why some pressers are ingeniously turning to 3D technology to make what’s needed.
Although consumer demand is creating a deluxe market that most thought disappeared years ago, music labels wish they can get their records instead of waiting for months. (I know you’re thinking, no such problem with CDs.) Well unfortunately vinyl is the only music format showing growth, and that includes digital downloads.
In January I attended a jazz conference in New York, and the good news there is that jazz enthusiasts haven’t given up on CDs, and in fact, sales last year showed flat to slight growth, whereas there were double-digit declines in pop and rock, according to a Sony Music employee.
However, the good news is that jazz is still being taught in the schools. In fact, one of my clients, Marsbeat Studios, produced a jazz card deck of 35 of the genre’s greats (e.g., Coltrane, Davis, Parker, Monk, Mingus, et. al.) that is being introduced to the high school curriculum of New York City’s Frank Sinatra School for the Performing Arts, which Tony Bennett founded. More information about these collectible jazz cards is at www.americanmusicpioneers.com. (Marsbeat is also working on a blues collection.)
In the same way that teacher Bill Stevens is introducing vintage jazz to teens who don’t have an affinity for packaged media the way we do (or even the baseball cards of our collected youth), the jazz cards add a physical dimension to the listening experience.
True, the hearing part is ethereal and certainly enhanced when looking at a beautifully illustrated portrait backed with biographical information about the musician. A recent op-ed article in the New York Times, ostensibly about Starbucks no longer selling CDs, absolutely pissed me off. Its author, who’s “sweared off” CDs, has written about music for numerous publications, including Rolling Stone. When she moonlights as a D.J., she no longer hauls around crates of LPs and CDs in favor of her MP3 collection and iPad app. Meanwhile, the CDs gathering dust in her basement “are more memories than objects.” She cringes when labels send her promotional CDs, which she regards as “an occupational hazard.” She even complains about having to open up packaging.
I’m glad she discovers new music on Soundcloud and Tumblr, which she admits doesn’t feel “as adventuresome” (to what?) and that she sort of misses browsing the Virgin Megastore. As much as adore my Spotify subscription for music discovery, music creators cannot live off the pittance from the streaming model, which is why I buy physical when I come across a piece of music that I really want to hear it again.
I hope she can get people to move on the dance floor because she appears to know absolutely nothing about the holistic music experience. She runs contrary to every music critic I’ve ever encountered – and I know many. We’re all music fanatics, and collectors. We covet the tactile: cover art, liner notes.
And yes I prefer holding an LP gatefold cover to a CD. You can whine about a jewel case, but even a well designed Digipak and booklet trumps looking at the iTunes interface of what song is playing on your laptop.
She should be banned from Record Store Day as far as I’m concerned.