Vinyl Getting Another Spin

I'm always interested in any news having to do with records. And here's one at CNN today. No quotes, I'll just mention what I remember.

That consumers are getting into vinyl again. Not just nostalgia, but because they like the sound, the feel, the sense of it. Flipping the record, looking at the covers, liner notes, all that.

I haven't bought a new record in ages. But once in a while I get some old, used ones, and even that, not very often. They're harder to find in good shape, or in good selection. Plus, my turntable needs a new needle -- and I guess I need to look online for one. I get a lot of skips and I don't remember that being such a problem in years gone by. The sound is OK when it's playing OK, but -- for instance, I just tried listening to a 45 and, yep, a skip!

I'd like to get a brand new everything, turntable, the works. And play some of my albums, not for recording off but just for playing. I still have quite a few albums. Maybe not the greatest selection of albums, but varied. And a bunch of 45s -- again, a haphazard collection.

Even when vinyl was the thing, I had a hard time playing them. Because of wear and tear, and because I was into the collecting of them, their value as collectibles, all that. Must handle carefully. And you lose a lot of the enjoyment when everything's like that.

It says in the CNN article that Abbey Road is the number one vinyl bestseller currently. I'm sure I have a copy of that. Mine, just going by memory is a later edition, the purple label, and it seems like it has more surface wear than you'd expect from that vintage.

That's something else about record collecting. We used to worry so much about which label it was, and collectors probably still think about that a lot. When it comes to CDs you really don't hear much of that. Any old copy is good enough. But with Beatle records, the Capitol ones, you had the black/rainbow, the green, the red, the purple, the apple, the apple with the Capitol logo, the apple without, etc. And 45s, the orange/yellow swirl, the target, red, purple, Starline green, several variations.

Maybe that will be my next stop in life. Upgrade my turntable! And try to enjoy records again.

CDs are definitely handier. It's hard to use a turntable in the car. They take up less room and they're easier to find. But, unlike records, it's hard to really care about them. They are a lot more disposable, more of a commodity. And especially when transferred over to an MP3 player, it can be like they're just in the way.