Jimbos Audio ramblings

[struth]

Got me thinking about vinyl and the escalating price that now seems to be happening on the back of Greedflation. Obviously 10 years ago or so you could buy bucket fulls of vinyl records second hand for absolutely peanuts. I used to go to a local indoor market where there were two record stores and the owner would price up the LPs at ridiculously low prices usual around £4 an album and that was for the good stuff. I would grab 10-15 records and instead of adding up their price the owner would just sell it as a job lot usually about £20..for about 10 records. And I was buying the classic stuff which now fetches eye watering prices.

If I had know then what I know now I could have hoovered up huge amounts of the really great releases and sold on for a fortune but hey ho didn't have a crystal ball. But now most of the really good stuff and classic recordings are priced way above what I would call reasonable and now the newly released stuff is starting to escalate in price. Most new vinyl a few years back rarely exceeded £20 but now it is priced up at £30-£40.

So with most of the worlds population streaming everything for nothing what does the record industry think will happen when young folk who are already strapped for cash are then being asked to stump up £30 for a record which is not guaranteed to be perfectly produced. I have bought so much stuff that has had to go back for various reasons and simple gave up trying to get a nice clean copy of Pink Floyd Endless River. The industry is in danger I feel of killing off its sales with high pricing of records as folk will simply buy fewer or none at all.

But it still has a long way to catch up with Mint or Near mint classic albums available via Discogs looking at some of the prices so maybe new stuff is actually good value?

50% of new vinyl never gets played, and that figure rises with the young.

[AJSki2fly]

Got me thinking about vinyl and the escalating price that now seems to be happening on the back of Greedflation. Obviously 10 years ago or so you could buy bucket fulls of vinyl records second hand for absolutely peanuts. I used to go to a local indoor market where there were two record stores and the owner would price up the LPs at ridiculously low prices usual around £4 an album and that was for the good stuff. I would grab 10-15 records and instead of adding up their price the owner would just sell it as a job lot usually about £20..for about 10 records. And I was buying the classic stuff which now fetches eye watering prices.

If I had know then what I know now I could have hoovered up huge amounts of the really great releases and sold on for a fortune but hey ho didn't have a crystal ball. But now most of the really good stuff and classic recordings are priced way above what I would call reasonable and now the newly released stuff is starting to escalate in price. Most new vinyl a few years back rarely exceeded £20 but now it is priced up at £30-£40.

So with most of the worlds population streaming everything for nothing what does the record industry think will happen when young folk who are already strapped for cash are then being asked to stump up £30 for a record which is not guaranteed to be perfectly produced. I have bought so much stuff that has had to go back for various reasons and simple gave up trying to get a nice clean copy of Pink Floyd Endless River. The industry is in danger I feel of killing off its sales with high pricing of records as folk will simply buy fewer or none at all.

But it still has a long way to catch up with Mint or Near mint classic albums available via Discogs looking at some of the prices so maybe new stuff is actually good value?

Well I think you need to put new LP record prices into perspective. When I was buying new LPs in the early 80’s good ones were £4 to £5 and an average weekly pay was about £125, so about 4% of weekly income.

The average weekly wage in 2023 is reported as £630 and LPs are around £20-30; so taking a £25 average that’s around 4%.

So in reality the price of a LP has not gone up relatively, it’s just us old duffers feel they have as we still think of the £5 LP.

Used or older vinyl values IMO are affected by various factors, in no particular order, condition, rarity, when pressed(1st pressings generally cost more), collectibility(worldwide popularity of an artist eg. The Beatles). Another factor is a lot of older records 50-80s we’re not generally available across the world in their day, but now it is a world market with a much bigger population/market place, so what we might think of as an easily purchased record back in the day may no longer fit that as lots more people want a great copy, so market demand pushes prices up. However I do think some records on Discogs are ridiculously priced.

[Jimbo]

I can understand us old duffers moaning about prices but I wonder what the younger "Free" music generation think?

[AJSki2fly]

I can understand us old duffers moaning about prices but I wonder what the younger "Free" music generation think?

I suspect they do not think much, if they buy a record they probably just accept the price as it is, much like most do with mobile phones, they pay whatever it is for what they want, after all they have loads of credit available which we didn't back in the 70-80s, well not many did.

[rmcin626]

Well I think you need to put new LP record prices into perspective. When I was buying new LPs in the early 80’s good ones were £4 to £5 and an average weekly pay was about £125, so about 4% of weekly income.

The average weekly wage in 2023 is reported as £630 and LPs are around £20-30; so taking a £25 average that’s around 4%.

So in reality the price of a LP has not gone up relatively, it’s just us old duffers feel they have as we still think of the £5 LP.

Used or older vinyl values IMO are affected by various factors, in no particular order, condition, rarity, when pressed(1st pressings generally cost more), collectibility(worldwide popularity of an artist eg. The Beatles). Another factor is a lot of older records 50-80s we’re not generally available across the world in their day, but now it is a world market with a much bigger population/market place, so what we might think of as an easily purchased record back in the day may no longer fit that as lots more people want a great copy, so market demand pushes prices up. However I do think some records on Discogs are ridiculously priced.

I think you are correct new vinyl is priced at roughly 4% of an average weekly wage, prices do vary quite a bit depending of where you buy your new records.
Personally I don’t purchase a huge amount of new music, most of my purchases are replacing existing copies some of which are not in the best condition due to multiple moves I made in my 20’s, a long time ago.
I will try and obtain an original pressing or if there is an audiophile version I might go for that depending on price, especially if one the top guys has done the mastering.
After a break of about 20 years we now have someone in the town selling used records, nothing new is stocked, yet to buy anything as his prices are a bit high, looks like he is using Discogs as guide , using the highest price regardless of condition.

[struth]

I think you are correct new vinyl is priced at roughly 4% of an average weekly wage, prices do vary quite a bit depending of where you buy your new records.
Personally I don’t purchase a huge amount of new music, most of my purchases are replacing existing copies some of which are not in the best condition due to multiple moves I made in my 20’s, a long time ago.
I will try and obtain an original pressing or if there is an audiophile version I might go for that depending on price, especially if one the top guys has done the mastering.
After a break of about 20 years we now have someone in the town selling used records, nothing new is stocked, yet to buy anything as his prices are a bit high, looks like he is using Discogs as guide , using the highest price regardless of condition.

its too much of a temptation for many; the disportionate variations from condition is alarming so folk tend to up classify,

[rmcin626]

its too much of a temptation for many; the disportionate variations from condition is alarming so folk tend to up classify,

The shop doubles up as a music store selling guitar spares etc., but some of his pricing is way off with regard to condition, one that amused me last week was £40 for a well battered copy of Argos, a record i have my version most be worth £80 as I would class mine as VG+ and his poor at best

[struth]

The shop doubles up as a music store selling guitar spares etc., but some of his pricing is way off with regard to condition, one that amused me last week was £40 for a well battered copy of Argos, a record i have my version most be worth £80 as I would class mine as VG+ and his poor at best

probably added a zero. .. in fact in that nick its unlikely to make 4 quid(assuming its Argus)

[rmcin626]

probably added a zero. .. in fact in that nick its unlikely to make 4 quid(assuming its Argus)

Good spot I will blame the spell checker , there is a 50th Anniversary version coming out, might even be out, which you would better buying.

[Macca]

1985 I was on a tenner a day and an album was a fiver. A CD was £12

At £25 they are about the same price they always were.

If you look at the sales figures it's all streaming there's only a tiny minority of youngsters buying vinyl. Even CD shifts more units than vinyl although it's less revenue.

I bought a lot of used records when they were still cheap, as little as a quid a go even for first pressings. Wasn't intentional but best investment I ever made.

Now doing the same with CD.