The death of Vinyl

[dubstepz]

It's arriving in Dubstep soon.

From a label's perspective Vinyl makes more money.... but consumers are mainly after digital .wav or 320's to play with traktor, serato, ableton, ipod etc...

Who want's a room full of vinyl when you can do the same in a laptop, particularly if your lucky enough to be a traveling DJ.

But... like drum and bass... laptop dj's don't exist yet.

There will always be a niche market for vinyl... But digital sales will represent over 90% of Dubstep sales and over 90% of dubstep dj's will not be using vinyl in the next 5 years.

Dubstepz, looking into his crystal ball

[teknotik]

From a label's perspective Vinyl makes more money.... but consumers are mainly after digital .wav or 320's to play with traktor, serato, ableton, ipod etc...

Surely most labels would rather be purely digital from a financial point of view? Doing a run of vinyl is a risk in the current climate. If they don't all get sold and you at least break even then it's not worth it. Sticking some MP3s online costs next to nothing in comparison, and you've wasted very little or no money if they don't sell. I think labels continue to do vinyl because that is still what people want (I know I would prefer vinyl or CD to a download). There is no harm in doing both, but if consumers didn't want vinyl, labels wouldn't produce it would they? I agree with you that it will go mostly digital, but I would imagine the labels would push the idea as hard if not harder than the consumers.

[fixation]

Who want's a room full of vinyl when you can do the same in a laptop particularly if your lucky enough to be a traveling DJ.

i would take a room full of vinyl over a laptop anyday

[dubstepz]

From a label's perspective Vinyl makes more money.... but consumers are mainly after digital .wav or 320's to play with traktor, serato, ableton, ipod etc...

Surely most labels would rather be purely digital from a financial point of view? Doing a run of vinyl is a risk in the current climate. If they don't all get sold and you at least break even then it's not worth it. Sticking some MP3s online costs next to nothing in comparison, and you've wasted very little or no money if they don't sell. I think labels continue to do vinyl because that is still what people want (I know I would prefer vinyl or CD to a download). There is no harm in doing both, but if consumers didn't want vinyl, labels wouldn't produce it would they? I agree with you that it will go mostly digital, but I would imagine the labels would push the idea as hard if not harder than the consumers.

Not true.

If you release digital only then it is much easier for people to share it via torrent'sp2p etc...

Also if you have an established fan base then you know you will sell over 1000 records and maker more on those than the digital equivalent (including distributors costs, online stores charges and loss of sales due to illegal file sharing)

There is a market for vinyl at the moment, because DJ's use vinyl and wanabe DJ's also use vinyl.

There is also alot of shit that goes vinyl only.

[dubstepz]

Who want's a room full of vinyl when you can do the same in a laptop particularly if your lucky enough to be a traveling DJ.

i would take a room full of vinyl over a laptop anyday

Why?

It's only because it is perceived that Vinyl is a cool thing to have in Dubstep/DnB culture.

Practically, both as a DJ and Consumer, laptop's make sense.

I bet more ''dance music'' purchases are made through beatport than any other retailer.

Why?

Because it has been accepted in nearly every other electronic music scene.

[prisoner]

OMFG WHAT AM I GOING TO DO HOLY SHIT NOOOOOO IM KILLING MYSELF RIGHT NOW!!1111111111111111

[dubstepz]

OMFG WHAT AM I GOING TO DO HOLY SHIT NOOOOOO IM KILLING MYSELF RIGHT NOW!!1111111111111111

It's a good thing.

And it should be acceptable not to use vinyl when playing rave's and more labels should release digital.

[prisoner]

you're obviously a big....

[dubstepz]

you're obviously a big....

Naaa... I just think alot about things and im in the business.

[ilioz]

no offense but there`s like 15 similar topics so what`s the worth..

[teknotik]

If you release digital only then it is much easier for people to share it via torrent'sp2p etc...

Also if you have an established fan base then you know you will sell over 1000 records and maker more on those than the digital equivalent (including distributors costs, online stores charges and loss of sales due to illegal file sharing)

It's easy enough for people to rip vinyl to an MP3 and share it and it happens to most new vinyl releases, but I take your point.

It's OK for the big labels with an already established fan base to keep doing vinyl, but the smaller or newer labels are going to find it increasingly more difficult to get to that stage aren't they? There are huge costs involved in pressing a run of vinyl and if you're just starting out and having to establish yourself I can't see how the costs would be justified. Especially if, as you say, the consumer doesn't even want vinyl anymore.

I'm just playing devil's advocate, by the way. I honestly prefer piles of CDs and records everywhere. It feels like a collection and that's important to me. It won't be the same when I'm forced to have all my music in a folder on a computer. Irrational, but there you go!

[dubstepz]

If you release digital only then it is much easier for people to share it via torrent'sp2p etc...

Also if you have an established fan base then you know you will sell over 1000 records and maker more on those than the digital equivalent (including distributors costs, online stores charges and loss of sales due to illegal file sharing)

It's easy enough for people to rip vinyl to an MP3 and share it and it happens to most new vinyl releases, but I take your point.

It's OK for the big labels with an already established fan base to keep doing vinyl, but the smaller or newer labels are going to find it increasingly more difficult to get to that stage aren't they? There are huge costs involved in pressing a run of vinyl and if you're just starting out and having to establish yourself I can't see how the costs would be justified. Especially if, as you say, the consumer doesn't even want vinyl anymore.

I'm just playing devil's advocate, by the way. I honestly prefer piles of CDs and records everywhere. It feels like a collection and that's important to me. It won't be the same when I'm forced to have all my music in a folder on a computer. Irrational, but there you go!

I totally understand where your coming from man.

Im some way's you OWN something instead of a file on your computer.

But that is not how I look at it personally, I do understand why some people do though.

Ok if you are an independent dubstep label/artist doing a digital only release then you are not going to have anywhere near as big a market as you would on vinyl.

This is because of ''Vinyl Culture''.

In Techno or House you will sell a load of digital. Not in dubstep though because everybody want's to play out vinyl.

This needs to change for the good and development of the scene, making alot of underground stuff easily accessible and having lower overheads as an indie label.

[kani]

Why?

It's only because it is perceived that Vinyl is a cool thing to have in Dubstep/DnB culture.

Practically, both as a DJ and Consumer, laptop's make sense.

I bet more ''dance music'' purchases are made through beatport than any other retailer.

Why?

Because it has been accepted in nearly every other electronic music scene.

uncompressed analog > compressed digital
end of story.
cant you hear the difference from a 320 to vinyl or CD quality track?


unless people are pressing from 320's,

[dubstepz]

Why?

It's only because it is perceived that Vinyl is a cool thing to have in Dubstep/DnB culture.

Practically, both as a DJ and Consumer, laptop's make sense.

I bet more ''dance music'' purchases are made through beatport than any other retailer.

Why?

Because it has been accepted in nearly every other electronic music scene.

uncompressed analog > compressed digital
end of story.
cant you hear the difference from a 320 to vinyl or CD quality track?


unless people are pressing from 320's,

.wav's sound better than vinyl in my opinion. A Vinyl press is a .wav that has been drawn in vibrations.

You get a .wav directly from the mastering studio and then put that onto vinyl normally, adding another process to it all and technically a properly mastered .wav will sound more analogue than any vinyl, minus the imperfections that come with vinyl.

Wav's do cost more than 320's though.

In a club you will struggle to here the difference between a 320 and vinyl unless you are a real audio geek like me. Beatport offer almost every dubstep track as a .wav.

[corpsey]

I much prefer vinyl, as expensive as it is.

[boogiemeister]

To me it was always about the whole package. A record or a CD are more than just a collection of songs. The artwork should go hand in hand with the music and I also like to "physically" have the music in my hands. Files have no real value to me. The music itself is the same but a physical release makes your music stand out imo, it gives your music more identity imo. Of course there are physical releases that suck ass as there are digital only releases that are great but that's always been the case with demo bands and signed artists etc. When digital releases will be taking over it means to me that people don't really care about music anymore.

[kani]

.wav's sound better than vinyl in my opinion. A Vinyl press is a .wav that has been drawn in vibrations.

You get a .wav directly from the mastering studio and then put that onto vinyl normally, adding another process to it all and technically a properly mastered .wav will sound more analogue than any vinyl, minus the imperfections that come with vinyl.

Wav's do cost more than 320's though.

In a club you will struggle to here the difference between a 320 and vinyl unless you are a real audio geek like me. Beatport offer almost every dubstep track as a .wav.

i think most people given an A/B with vinyl/320 could tell the difference, but out at the club with no reference, your probably right.
your equation for a WAV does have mastering for vinyl as part of the QC for the matter, i think less people would bother with sending out for mastering if digital was the end product.

[dubstepz]

When digital releases will be taking over it means to me that people don't really care about music anymore.

This is a good pont.

You hear Mala, Scream etc talking about focusing more and making things better if you are going to go through the trouble and cost of getting it pressed.

You do also loose some quality control in a digital world.

BUT... the consumer/fan/DJ can decide what they like and don't like and can never have too many options.

Shit will always be shit and heavy music will always be heavy music. It doesn't matter how it was released.

[DZA]

[azair]

As for vinyl and CD sales, vinyl has gotten a renaissance in Denmark. The CD sales has decreased in the year of 2008.