Worried About Fewer Young People in our Hobby?

[jmad7474]

As one of those no-good, pesky Millennial brats I have to chime in and say that this hobby is NOT dead among "the yute" - those of us who can afford to indulge in buying antique phonographs and records are enjoying a good market where collectors of our parents' age and older are looking to downsize their collections and are usually eager to give them to us cheap. That is, of course, provided they were not viewed as investment vehicles by those same collectors (jukebox collectors, anyone?)

In addition, the ease of finding old-timey recordings on the YouTubes and the like have led to a resurgence of interest in this hobby, as people can now become exposed to a huge chunk of recordings from the 1920s onward via digital music uploads and streaming services. This has been a huge factor, since few people have access to a 78 rpm turntable but they can still hear the music originally recorded on them. I do not know if this would encourage an avid listener of such recordings to actually go out and buy a wind up phonograph with records, but it is certainly better than nothing!

There's a hipster-ish used record store in my town that until recently msde a little space among the vinyl and CD's to sell some 78's. But now they announce on their website that they will not buy 78's anymore. If they won't buy them, they probably will not be selling them.

You Tube and streaming all the same, I don't really see that much interest festering in the young folk of today over century old music, let alone going to set up real collections of records and phonographs.

The younger set these days do seem to show a bit of a renewed appreciation for music from, say, the 1950's or 1960's (the early hi-fi and stereo era and early rock, like Elvis) due to it's accessibility via streaming, etc. A lot of that stuff doesn't exist or is hard to obtain on 78.

I can't blame the store for that decision, though, considering that 78s require way more care and feeding than vinyl records do - they are heavier, much more fragile, and their shipping/handling costs can definitely eat into a store's profit margin (with the icing on the cake being that they only appeal to only a small fraction of total record buyers). If you want a shop that only stocks 78s, you will have to travel to Vintage Music in Minneapolis.

[GrafonolaG50]

I'm not too worried honestly. I had taken my VV-IV to school a few times and would play it in the cafeteria at lunch and people took an interest. Most at least stopped to learn about the machine, and a few of my classmates ended up buying wind up machines. Also found out in college that the guy with a wind up is everyone's best friend during a prolonged power outage/ wifi outage.

[edisonplayer]

What's really fascinating for people is when I show them a cylinder record.Recently I had someone visiting me.I showed her one and played it for her.It was an Edison 2 minute of Billy Murray singing "Give My Regards To Broadway".She was AMAZED! edisonplayer PS:So many people have never seen a cylinder record.

[DGPros]

It's my personal opinion, every age group will have a handful of people who will gravitate towards a particular hobby. How do you reach these kids though? The last 3 out of 4 machines I sold were to kids between 8 and 12. I make sure to teach them some basics,and show them a few other machines in my collection. I've found mentioning the Vhs/Beta war goes over like a led balloon, but they do know Blue Ray/HDDVD when I explain the difference with 78's and Diamond Discs. Talk to the engineer minded about the build, music with the musician, history with the history buff and patents with the business minded. Ask THEM questions and see which direction the conversation goes.
Running these programs are awesome, but don't forget, in order to reach this younger generation, you need to not only find them, but talk their language.(Instagram, facebook, youtube etc.) I'm also mindful to tell them there are groups that can teach them much more than I know. Sending a text with this information puts it in their hands and only takes a moment. We are at a wonderful time to reach these younger kids without even leaving our homes! Think about that the next time your heading to a phono show, museum etc. Take pictures, videos and share away with family and friends. You would be surprised how many people have a friend who is interested, and doesn't know where to start.


Oh and HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone

[Wolfe]

travel to Vintage Music in Minneapolis.

Thanks for the heads up. Didn't know the place existed. Their website is very spartan.

[edisonplayer]

My nieces and nephews know about antique phonographs because their uncle has some.It would also go for their kids.edisonplayer

[phonogfp]

Now that the holidays are over, the Engineering students at Rose-Hulman have had a chance to submit their reactions to the antique phonograph demonstration that occurred there on December 20. Here are a few:


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The most memorable thing for me, being an ME was looking on the inside of a phonograph to see how it worked from the inside. The mechanical ingenuity of the time was exceedingly impressive, but I was also surprised to learn that each company had its own way of making the machine. Many people had the capability to make the phonograph, but to come up with and invent the thing is a whole new monster on its own. You would think making something spin at a steady rate would be easier.

I remember seeing the records and remembering how we learned about the shift from one sided to two sided, and then what we learned about the quality and ability to replay the records was also evident in the records we listened to there. Plus, actually seeing all the changes to physical sounds over time was very eye-opening.
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I was most interested in the display of the mechanics of the phonograph, and being able to interact and operate it.

Organizing the machines chronologically seems interesting
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The phonograph society visit was an eye-opening experience for me, given that it was both a fun and interesting exhibit full of information that I had not known prior to visiting, as well as a unique way to come into contact with some of the material I had learned about but not had a great way to visualize. I encouraged many of my friends to check out the room if they had time during their day, and the one that said he had seen it enjoyed it as much as I did. I encourage the expansion of the exhibit to include even more pieces beyond the scope of the class, so as to both give a broader view of history to students in the class and increase interest from the wider student body.
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It would be useful to have cards of signs of some of the bigger items because if the person was already talking then you still want to look at the items. Having such info as a title, short description, dates, price (both historical and converted to present day). As well has if you can touch the item.

It was cool to have the look into the internal workings of the machine because it appealed to engineering side of our brains which many of us are more used to working with.

I really liked the inclusion of the microphone so it might be fun to expand it.
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Something that was really memorable was the dancers that one of the guys had on his phonograph that could be changed to dance in a few different ways.

Something else that was interesting was the amount of variety in all parts of the phonographs with things such as sound, size, quality, what they played.

Overall, the experience was really neat and helped a lot to create a picture of everything we had talked about in class.
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The most memorable aspect of the Phonograph Society's event was seeing the early progression of the phonograph. I found it really interesting to walk around the first couple of tables and see how the phonograph progressed from being a machine that could only record to being able to read previous recordings and generate sound out of them. The people running these tables were very helpful and informative, and it was very interesting to see the real-life counterparts to what we have been studying over the past four weeks.

This event was a great summary of all of our lectures and readings, especially since we got to have first-hand experience with the early phonographs. One thing that we didn't touch on in class too much was the inner workings of the phonograph, so I thought that being able to see and operate the phonograph motor and see how it mechanically works was a very complementary experience to what we learned in class.
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APS members: Don't forget to renew for 2019!
https://www.antiquephono.org/join-us-home/

George P.

[alang]

Great job introducing students to phonographs! I would have loved to experience that.

Andreas