Food For Thought

Discussions on Talking Machines & Accessories
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phonogfp
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Food For Thought

Post by phonogfp »

More evidence that the future of antique phonograph/record collecting is not necessarily bleak:

https://hbr.org/2017/12/customers-wont- ... plains-why

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Re: Food For Thought

Post by fran604g »

That's fascinating, George, thank you for sharing.

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Re: Food For Thought

Post by Curt A »

It definitely explains why someone might pay hundreds of dollars for a specific song on original shellac, as opposed to a free MP3 file of the same record. The song is the same, the sound is the same, but you can't hold an MP3...
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Re: Food For Thought

Post by melvind »

A very good article and I think is pretty accurate. I work in a bookstore part time (in my retirement) and I find that the folks that come in there love the charm of the store and love holding and looking through books. I've been told several times by customers that they just love being surrounded by paper books. Some even used electronic readers but gave them up. So, an interesting happening. With the return to LP records and typewriters by a younger generation shows that there is a need for something that can be held, used and understood.

Thanks for the article George!

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Re: Food For Thought

Post by travisgreyfox »

As evidenced by the recent record shops coming back into style I would say this is 100% accurate. The only bad thing for us is that most of these record shops throw away 78s. Every single record shop that I stopped at in my local area said they just toss 78s in the dumpster without even looking at them and only keep 33s mostly.

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Re: Food For Thought

Post by oldphonographsteve »

I've found that most of my peers appreciate the tangibility of books but that is essentially where it stops. Occasionally you will find those young individuals who appreciate vinyl, but rarely do they ever appreciate 78s. I walked into a record store a couple years ago and I asked the girl who worked there if they carried 78s. She said no and that "78s don't really have anything good on them." :roll: I think the problem really is the lack of exposure to such old material.

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Re: Food For Thought

Post by CarlosV »

Very interesting article, thanks for posting it.

It highlights two characteristics that are relevant to the valuing of the physical over the digital medium: tangibility and identification with the content. This last one, identification, leaves me not so optimistic about the future of 78 rpm and gramophone collection. Young people that are discovering LPs are buying content of artists they identify with, so instead of downloading Beyonce's mp3 they may buy Beyoncé LPs (if they exist). The problem with 78 rpm's is that most of its content does not identify with young people - just ask how many millenials know who is Bing Crosby or Tommy Dorsey. There will always be those few who like old music like opera or jazz and may look for Caruso or Louis Armstrong records played on vintage equipment, but I don't see the number of this kind of aficionado growing as time goes by. It will not disappear like stamp collecting, but will remain a niche hobby.

And a more general question: do millenials collect anything?

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Re: Food For Thought

Post by Starkton »

CarlosV wrote:The problem with 78 rpm's is that most of its content does not identify with young people
I completely agree with you. For me, the key sentence of the article was as follows: "Participants valued a physical copy of The Empire Strikes Back more than a digital copy, for instance, only if they considered the Star Wars series to be films with which they strongly identified."

Although I have tried to introduce young people to the hobby of collecting early recordings and phonographs over the last 20 years with lectures and as a university employee, not a single one has become a collector to my knowledge. Those who are active today started it decades ago as children or teenagers. Every now and then I get to know one of my few competitors and almost always they are old white men. If I stayed with my hobby for another 30 years, I could certainly buy a lot of collectibles from estates, which are financially unreachable at the moment. But what comes after me? My son, who just started his studies, but has never bought a physical copy of a record in his life and will probably never do so, would have the problem of having to market a bunch of items that were once valuable, but are now hard to sell. I'd better leave him shares in the Universal Music Group.

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Re: Food For Thought

Post by epigramophone »

The constant pressure to "go paperless" for everything from bank statements to energy bills makes me feel like an analogue relic trapped in a digital world.

I enjoy handling my records, books and DVD's. They will outlast me for sure, and I am not one computer crash away from losing the lot.

I have a regular column in the CLPGS magazine featuring record covers of interest, and every month I publish old photographs of my village in the Parish Magazine. Both these efforts generate positive feedback from readers, so all is not lost.

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Re: Food For Thought

Post by melvind »

I think young people are still interested. Last week our local phonograph group, The Oregon Territory Antique Phonograph Society (OTAPS), gained its newest member that is a 7 year old that has befriended one of our members in Seattle and is fascinated by the mechanics and sound of the old phonographs. In fact, he is assisting in the restoration of a phonograph that will eventually become his. I think there will always be those that love analog, mechanical, tangible items in every generation. We are sure excited about our new 7 year old member!

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