The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

gramophone-georg wrote: Sat May 07, 2022 5:01 pm

MATTROSE94 wrote: Sat May 07, 2022 3:02 pm

AmberolaAndy wrote: Mon May 02, 2022 12:02 am
From what I see, I see more Gen Z folks than people my age in this hobby interested. I see more teenagers and early 20s folks than I see 32 year olds like me collecting. And that’s great that folks younger than me get it, some people my age do…but not as much.

Paul how much of your demographic is of early 30somethings?

I noticed that as well. Most 78 collectors I know were born between 1980 and 2010, with a big percentage being born in the mid to late 1990s. On the other hand, I know very few collectors born in the late 1950s, 1960s or 1970s. I am thinking that the increased availability of vintage music from the 78 era due to the internet and online streaming services increased interest in 78 collecting for the age group born between 1980 and 2010.

There's another factor here too, though, in that those of us born from the 50s onward to about 1980 have been collecting for up to 50 years now, and began in a different era when 78s and cylinders were still very commonplace and CHEAP- I mean like 5 and 10c cheap, and even better than that if you bought a collection at a yard sale, and there really wasn't much info out there yet as to what was "valuable" or not- they were all just "old records" that normal people no longer had any interest in whatsoever. It's getting to the point for me, that before I buy a record, I need to seriously ponder "but where will I PUT it?" No, seriously. Between what I have in my record room/ office and still boxed up in storage I probably have an easy 15,000 78s.

I am kind of at that point as well. I have a whole closet full of common 78s I picked up for next to nothing over the past 15 years and in about two weeks, I am going to pick up several hundred 78s from a family friends late father. He was born in 1928 and collected from the mid-30s until the 50s, so his collection might not be promising value wise, but I can probably give the records away to a new collector who wants to jump start their collection.

As someone from that age range, kinda, I just wanted to say this.

The hobby is very unique and it's not really something a lot of people do, and once your "vaccinated with a phonograph needle", it really doesn't get out of your blood. We share it to our friends (whether they care or not ) And we kids really like being unique, and it's certainly a unique hobby.

Not to mention just hearing stuff from history, some kids don't really care for history but when they can HEAR the history it's a whole new story
Edisograph

Edisograph wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:57 pm As someone from that age range, kinda, I just wanted to say this.

The hobby is very unique and it's not really something a lot of people do, and once your "vaccinated with a phonograph needle", it really doesn't get out of your blood. We share it to our friends (whether they care or not ) And we kids really like being unique, and it's certainly a unique hobby.

Not to mention just hearing stuff from history, some kids don't really care for history but when they can HEAR the history it's a whole new story
Edisograph

So what genres do you prefer?

I attend CAPS meetings by Zoom. Most of the people there are older. However, there are some young people in attendance, too. And at the last meeting, I even saw a young woman up and checking out the contents of the auction table.

Some of the music collectors I have run into in Vancouver are relatively young, too.

One of my younger nephews expressed an interest in my small collection of phonographs and larger collection of 78s. He found it very interesting when I pointed out that, if you don't go all the way down the rabbit hole, the hobby, antique phonographs and records, is not expensive to get started with.

On FBM and CL there are often working machines in the Free to $75 range.

Locally records do not move. I have tried to give boxes of records away and mostly failed, Collectors' gems are few, but there are lots of disks to get started with, cheap.

Young people, however, cannot get into collecting in a big way because, for the most part, they have nowhere settled to live. Home ownership is way out of reach,

gramophone-georg wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:33 pm

Edisograph wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:57 pm As someone from that age range, kinda, I just wanted to say this.

The hobby is very unique and it's not really something a lot of people do, and once your "vaccinated with a phonograph needle", it really doesn't get out of your blood. We share it to our friends (whether they care or not ) And we kids really like being unique, and it's certainly a unique hobby.

Not to mention just hearing stuff from history, some kids don't really care for history but when they can HEAR the history it's a whole new story
Edisograph

So what genres do you prefer?

A mix of a lot but operatic music always makes me really nice

Edisograph wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 7:25 pm

gramophone-georg wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 1:33 pm

Edisograph wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 12:57 pm As someone from that age range, kinda, I just wanted to say this.

The hobby is very unique and it's not really something a lot of people do, and once your "vaccinated with a phonograph needle", it really doesn't get out of your blood. We share it to our friends (whether they care or not ) And we kids really like being unique, and it's certainly a unique hobby.

Not to mention just hearing stuff from history, some kids don't really care for history but when they can HEAR the history it's a whole new story
Edisograph

So what genres do you prefer?

A mix of a lot but operatic music always makes me really nice

Ah. Hardcore! Excellent.

Quote:"And if they can hear their favorite Henry Burr tunes online, then there is even less motivation to get their hands dirty digging through stacks of 78's looking for Henry Burr records."

What could possibly be categorized as a "favorite" Henry Burr tune??? Henry Burr wouldn't even show up on the top 1,000 favorite artists list...

Okay, I’m a bit surprised that this topic of mine, got revived! Only because, after a while they wind up, being pushed down into the depths of the forum. Sometimes never too be seen or read again!

Edisonfan wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 7:22 pm Okay, I’m a bit surprised that this topic of mine, got revived! Only because, after a while they wind up, being pushed down into the depths of the forum. Sometimes never too be seen or read again!

This was started by YOU? Man, if we had known THAT...

gramophone-georg wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 7:35 pm

Edisonfan wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 7:22 pm Okay, I’m a bit surprised that this topic of mine, got revived! Only because, after a while they wind up, being pushed down into the depths of the forum. Sometimes never too be seen or read again!

This was started by YOU? Man, if we had known THAT...

Oh you’re funny!