Radio France is going to sell some records

Radio France has, as you might expect, a massive collection of records. One and a half million items on vinyl alone.

Now it's digitising its collection, though, it's thinking it might not need to take up so much space with records and so there's going to be an auction:

As deputy director of documentation and head of the Radio France discography Marc Maret told Trax: “This is not a dead collection. It is alive and well, is used every day, and is affiliated to a music platform that allows its distribution.”

First sale is in June. Anyone asking about Plastique Bertrand will be barred from bidding.

Bookmarks: vinyl

Kathy Iandoli contributes a piece on the lost art of cratedigging, which you can read over at Medium:

So what’s the point, right? Well, there is a utility for cratedigging that dates back decades to the earliest days of hip-hop production, because records were the raw materials for hip-hop tracks. The art of sampling was awesome albeit arduous. A producer would find a “breakbeat” (an instrumental section or drumbeat) or a snippet of sound from a record that they liked; play the vinyl on a turntable; and record that piece of music onto a sampler or a sampling-enabled drum machine where it could be replayed and layered in conjunction with other sounds in the beatmaking process.

To acquire the vinyl, they would hunt. They raided record stores and hit record fairs in the early morning hours to scour through crates and crates of wax. The Roosevelt Hotel Record Convention on E. 45th Street in New York City was a big one. Dealers would gather and legends of hip-hop’s Golden Age would arrive and peel through the layers of vinyl to find what they needed.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Looking at Kim Sears' chest

The appearance of Kim Sears at Andy Murray's Australian Open final wearing a Parental Advisory shirt (following being caught on camera swearing like a Gamergater spotting a feminist) was a good joke.

And what do you do with a good joke? Why, you analyse to death. Hence, the BBC used the shirt as a leaping-off point for a piece about the Parental Advisory logo.

And who better to share a thought or two about something music-related than Gennaro Castaldo, once HMV's homme de pensee, now installed on the South Bank as BPI's thought monarch:

But Gennaro Castaldo from the BPI admits that the label can undermine its own purpose. "Yes, there is that badge of honour aspect to it," he says. "The impulse behind it is to make parents and consumers aware of the content but it does have a dual effect - after all we've all been teenagers driven by a need to be anti-establishment and anti-parents. That's not going to change."

It makes you wonder what Gennaro's anti-establishment teenage years were like - sticking out press releases without notes for editors, perhaps. "Screw you mom, screw you dad, I'm not going to indicate where more follows and there's not a thing you can do about it."

I'm not sure Gennaro's statement makes much sense - if parents are seeing a sticker and going 'ooh, this is a rude record, I shall not buy it' and teenagers are seeing a sticker and going 'ooh this is a rude record, I shall buy it', I don't think that's a dual effect; it's alerting both sets of passers-by that there is a rude record on sale.

Obviously Gennaro knows in his heart that most teenagers will see a CD carrying a parental advisory sticker not in a shop as they go about making music purchases, but as they go through their parent's record collection going 'so you had to put these in, what, a BluRay machine? Is that how it worked?'

To be fair, not all youngsters wouldn't recognise a disc if it was sharpened to a point and used to slice their modish beards off. There's the subset of The Kids buying vinyl, and it was this "trend" thatsaw the Telegraph seeking Castaldo's counsel. What's going on, asked the Telegraph:

Vinyl-record sales are booming, too. Last year they hit an estimated 1.2 million – the highest for 20 years, and a five-fold increase since 2008. Threatened by seemingly superior technologies, the old discs seemed headed for extinction, but – as with books – it is the “soul” of vinyl that has been its salvation.

In particular, fans like the covers – once an art genre in their own right and now being rediscovered by a new generation. “They are one of the key reasons people are buying vinyl again,” says Gennaro Castaldo of the British Phonographic Industry. “They help to transform a record into an artefact fans like to own and collect.”

Yeah. What Castaldo doesn't warn The Kids is that when they come to move out of their parent's homes, the purchase of vinyl is going to add boxes and boxes of weight to every time they shift from house to house in the future. Good luck with that, The Kids.

Sara Lowes has an offer for you

You can preorder Sara Lowes' forthcoming album. If you spend thirty quid, you get a delicious vinyl version, with a download code, and a CD of the last album. There's only 300 on offer, so be quick.

Geri Halliwell is up on the latest trends

I just bought some vinyl - it's coming back

— Geri Halliwell (@GeriHalliwell) December 24, 2014

Good news, then, Geri: you can buy back the purple vinyl dress you wore on Noel's House Party in 1997.

Who sells the most vinyl?

Amazon. Obviously.

But before we move on from the question, it's interesting to note who else sells vinyl in quantities in the US:

1. Amazon 12.3% of US retail vinyl market
2. Urban Outfitters 8.1%
3. Hastings Entertainment 2.8%
4. Hot Topic 2.4%
5. Trans World Entertainment 2.2%

Yes, there's two clothes shops on that list. (I know Hot Topic would claim they're some sort of alternative lifestyle shop, but they're a clothes shop with a record rack.)

I have a collection; you are a hoarder; he is... what the hell is he?

Most people who love records have a problem, as passion turns to festishism. But however you feel about your shelves of 12 inch singles, or piles of CDs, you can take comfort that you're not as bad as Zero Freitas, a wealthy Brazilian on a mission to buy all the vinyl in the world.

How many records does he have? He's got interns trying to catalogue the collection, at 500 discs a day, but they'll never succeed because he adds music faster than they can catalogue.

It's not just an obsession, though: there is a mission, too:

While Freitas thumbed through those records, Bastos was warning of a future in which some music might disappear unnoticed. Most of the American and British records Freitas has collected have already been digitally preserved. But in countries like Brazil, Cuba and Nigeria, Bastos estimated, up to 80 percent of recorded music from the mid-20th century has never been transferred. In many places, he said, vinyl is it, and it’s increasingly hard to find. Freitas slumped, then covered his face with his hands and emitted a low, rumbling groan. “It’s very important to save this,” he said. “Very important.”

Vinyl isn't all that

Who doesn't have a vinyl fetish? It's so shiny, isn't it? And handily wipe-clean, too.

But there's another a kind of vinyl fetishist, which is the one who insists that music is "better" when it's reproduced by bouncing a needle on a groove in a circular disc. Because it sounds better. Because it's more authentic.

That's actually not true, though, says Marc Edwards, who knows a thing or two about audio fidelity:

[W]e’d send every single release off to be mastered for vinyl, and receive an acetate (a one off copy), a test pressing (initial pressings using the vinyl master), or the final release pressing and be able to compare it to not only a 16bit/44.1khz master of the exact same recording, but we were also often able to compare directly to a 24bit/44.1khz master and 24bit/44.1khz pre-mastered version of the exact same song. And all typically on studio nearfield masters and really nice headphones.

His verdict? Vinyl isn't superior. Here's a sample:

Not only does vinyl have a narrower frequency response, but that response curve changes based on side length and how close to the center of the record the needle is. It makes sense when you think about it — the record player spins at a constant rate, but the distance the needle travels and the amount of data is lowered as you get closer to the center. This is why most releases put the important tracks early in the playing sequence. This is really, really obvious if you have a record handy. Focus on high hats or cymbals, and move the needle to different positions to hear how drastic the effect is.

Vinyl often has issues with sibilance as well (“s” and “t” sounds in vocals). The solution is to run an aggressive de-esser as part of the vinyl mastering.

Now, the cussedness and fragility of vinyl adds something - crackles, pops, a scratch from that time you accidentally dragged the zip of your vinyl catsuit over the turntable while Screamdelica was on it - and that is character you don't get with digital. But the things that make vinyl special are actually the same things that reduce its audio fidelity.

The artwork, though? That's always better on a twelve inch square space.

New York sells off vinyl

The New York Public Library is selling surplus vinyl records - things it has been given, but already has a decent copy of. It frees up space, raises funds to expand the collection.

They've got a tumblr with some of the merchandise on display.

The needle returns to the start of the song and we all sing along like before

Exciting news from the New York Times. Vinyl, it's coming back.

Vinyl records almost disappeared after CDs were introduced, but they’re making a comeback — and a surprising number of LP buyers are young listeners.

Ah, sweet old, reliable friend makes a return. Not vinyl, but a story about vinyl coming back.

Last month, for example, it was The Arizona Republic spotting the trend:

Vinyl records are making a comeback across generations

In April, Forbes spotted the sales:

The Beat Goes On: How Vinyl Records Are Making A Comeback

That was just a few days after The Racine Journal Times pointed to all those kids with 12" singles under their arms:

Vinyl records making a comeback with collectors
BUYING MUSIC THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY

Even Senior Planet is talking about it:

Got Vinyl? Record Albums Are Making a Comeback

But let's be fair to the New York Times. After all, if you pitch something at editorial meetings with the words "have you guys noticed what's going on at the top of the pops?", it's going to be three days before you'll be able to tempt Mark Thompson out the Executive Panic Room. Maybe they're a few weeks behind - ahem - Senior Planet with knowing what's down with the kids, but this 2013 new vinyl trend is just rolling, right?

What's that you're saying, Dubspot?

The Resurgence of Vinyl Continues In 2012 – Record Stores Making a Comeback?

But that was November.

Although The Daily Beacon had a story in August 2012:

Vinyl making local comeback

Hang about, if the mainstream media were reporting this story summer last year, surely some edgy, rule-breaking group was trying to warn us sooner? Fox News, maybe, in June 2012:

Vinyl records mount comeback

Fox. First with news.

Vinyl Records Making Comeback

Okay, so Voice Of America ran a story in September 2011.
And USA Today had a story in February 2011:

As both a music lover and record store owner, Tim Cretsinger is excited about the recent resurgence of vinyl record albums.

"This is my favorite thing to do — hold a batch of records like this," Cretsinger, owner of Groovacious in Cedar City, Utah, says as he hugged a stack of new records close to his chest.

"It reminds me of the old days."

The old days are making a comeback.

And the LA Times did the story in 2009:

In a digital age, vinyl's making a comeback

The Telegraph was heralding the vinyl comeback in 2002:

Forget the compact disc, the MP3 player and the MiniDisc. The vinyl record, once believed to be consigned to the dustbin of music history, is making a comeback.

Yes, that's a vinyl comeback story from so long ago that it mentions MiniDisc in it.

But let's be fair, you can't really expect the New York Times to monitor all the other media in the world having been reporting vinyl comeback stories month in, month out for over ten years.

You might have hoped, though, the paper would have spotted this story:

Music on vinyl making a comeback

That was the New York Times announcing a comeback for vinyl back in 2008.

Ah, if only the Times could have had the prescience of this publication, which reported on vinyl's scramble from the grave in 1994:

A funny thing happened on the way to the burial of the vinyl record. It has been kept alive by a subculture of ardent fans who insist that something precious is lost when music gets all cleaned up on a CD. In addition to preferring what they insist is the "warmer" sound of vinyl, fans speak wistfully of the tactile pleasures of an LP -- studying the cover art, reading the liner notes, even placing the big, meaty platter on a turntable.

You'll be ahead of me: that was the New York Times.

Nearly two decades of running articles about how vinyl is clinging to life. The only thing more resilient than the twelve inch album is the ability of journalists to pretend to be surprised when talking about them.

Bookmarks: X-Ray discs

As far as I can tell, what we have here - Пластинки "на рёбрах" - on LiveJournal is a collection of records from the former Soviet Union which have been created by etching the tracks onto old X-Ray sheets by a studio operating underground in St Petersburg. Presumably to cope with the difficulty of getting proper records - or proper vinyl - at the time. This one's Heartbreak Hotel...

[via HardFormat]

Gennaro Castaldo watch: Vinyl throw of the dice

Here's something we haven't had for a while: a positive story about HMV. Gennaro Castaldo has been able to take a break from trying to put on a brave face to hail the return of vinyl to the Swansea branch:

Initially Swansea will carry a stock of 1,500 vinyl albums.

HMV head of PR Gennaro Castaldo added: "We are initially embarking on a 12 store trial. If the trial proves the success we hope and expect it to be we will extend it to up to 30 stores and thereafter we'll consider rolling it out to many of our stores in our 240-strong chain."

Or, he might have added, wait until our chain shrinks to just those 30 stores. Whichever comes sooner.

Still - lovely to see HMV doing something that might tempt music fans back into their shops.

Tom Jones goes vinyl only

This is lovely: Tom Jones has created a limited-edition, coloured-vinyl version of his Jack White collaboration Evil, and is only selling it through Spillers.

Spillers being the shop in Cardiff where he bought records when he was a tiny Tom.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: Vinyl returns

The 405 doesn't name the spokesperson, but surely in these hard times HMV can't have many spokestypes hanging about to offer this view on the expansion of vinyl:

A spokesperson for HMV said "A lot of customers have been asking us to increase the amount of racking we dedicate to music in store and we're pleased to say we'll be doing a lot more of that soon - in fact we're also planning to significantly increase our range of vinyl in quite a few locations as well."

The slow spread of vinyl back into "quite a few locations" is a great idea. Let's hope it can outrun the creeping collapse of the chain.

Mojo goes vinyl

Mojo are doing a vinyl covermount to mark the 40th anniversary of some Beatles record or other, which is quite interesting.

The Mojo editor-in-chief, Phil Alexander, said: "The Mojo vinyl edition is our way of celebrating the rebirth of vinyl which we've seen in recent years. Essentially, we created an incarnation of the magazine that we wanted to buy ourselves so it was something of a labour of love."

He added: "In terms of the album itself, we hand-picked the acts and they all paid tribute to the enduring power of the Beatles by providing new perspectives on a set of classic tunes."

It's not going to be the standard edition of the magazine, though - available through Smiths, HMV and record shops; buy a copy elsewhere and you'll get a CD. (Possibly - the MediaGuardian report isn't clear.)

It's not entirely unheard of for a vinyl covermout, even now - NME did one with Coldplay in 2008. Everyone got one of those. But, on the other hand, it was Coldplay.

Coming soon: Black Lips and Pierced Arrows

I suspect you'll have to be in the states and near a pretty good record shop and/or chained to eBay to get hold of next week's split 7" single featuring the Black Lips and Pierced Arrows. The people at Scion AV are underwriting the enterprise as part of a running series of free shows in New York, coupled with a quick recording session. Worth keeping eyes peeled for.

Gennaro Castaldo Watch: He's got a red hot twelve inches

How many times now have we seen reporters suddenly "discovering" that vinyl sales rising again? There's another piece in the Times doing pretty much that this morning. Naturally, HMV's apostle of Lazarus formats Gennaro Castaldo is waiting by a phone to sort-of explain this:

Gennaro Castaldo, of HMV, said: “It’s pretty much a niche product compared with CDs and downloads, but a reasonably healthy one that you can see carrying on into the future. It’s seen off cassettes and you get the feeling it will also be around after CDs as well, mainly because it has an emotional appeal.”

I've read about two dozen pieces like this over the last few years, and nobody - not even Gennaro - seems to have thought that the real reason vinyl sales have started to grow, slowly, over the last couple of years has been the spread of digitising turntables simply making it easier to play and capture vinyl after a decade or so where anyone trying to buy a record player would have looked like Griff Rhys-Jones in that Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch.

Turntable turned off: Technics nixxed

Even the sort of wedding dj who pretends that they're Fatboy Slim seems to have stopped using turntables in favour of digital decks, so it's perhaps no surprise that Panasonic have announced they're ceasing production of Technics turntables.

The big question: If DJs now turn up with all their choons on a memory stick, what has taken the place of 'carrying one of the big plastic boxes of records' as the time-honoured way of sneaking into the venue without paying?

Arctic Monkeys records available in Oxfam

No, not just CDs that have already had their guts ripped to a harddrive; they're releasing a 10 inch single, Cornerstone, and making it available only in Oxfam shops.

Just fifty of them, apparently; the ones described as "the top 50 stores" - might have been an even nicer gesture if the record could be shared with some of the smaller stores, too, rather than just the ones that already popular. But that's a minor gripe.

This is what you'll be getting:

Mozzer: My eyes! My eyes!

With the horrific possibility that to McFly, Lily Allen and Beth Ditto we might soon be welcoming people Googling for Morrissey naked - and with the strict warning that it's Not Safe For Anyone Who Has Recently Eaten - we're compelled to point to Morrissey-Solo's photo of Mozzer and his band nude, save for seven inch singles. With the words "click to enlarge" right underneath.

One of the band - on the extreme right - looks like he should have got a twelve inch remix. But it's fun with this sort of thing to spot the person who was least thrilled when they found out what the plan for the photoshoot was - I'm guessing the guy with the "oh, god, just take the bloody photo" look on his face to Morrissey's right.

With penises strapped to vinyl discs, there is some sort of needledick gag just waiting to be made, isn't there?

The picture is on the inner-sleeve of I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris, if you'd like to enjoy it in the privacy of your own home without having to worry about those new rules on extreme online porn.