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I recently discussed the inevitable demise of the Compact Disc in a post entitled The CD, the Record Store, and the Woolly Mammoth, and there were mixed opinions on buying digital downloads vs. the tangible product, complete with album art and liner notes.
Drinking Buddy followed up with a post, Cassette Tapes are Good for Recording Your Farts which showed us that cassette tapes sales are flourishing in other countries, while they last served his purpose during a collaborative project to tape record a symphony of flatulence with friends. He misplaced the tape, but I’m sure it will make its way to the Smithsonian one day.
Which brings me to this latest article about United Record Processing, a company that still produces 20-40,000 vinyl records per DAY and distributes mostly to mom and pop record stores and DJ’s. The owner has seen company revenues hit $5 million in 2004, then grow to $7 million in 2005. He also indicated that 2006 showed “significant” growth over the previous year. Most of the success has been due to hip-hop.
What keeps this business growing in our iTunes world? Having old school, Steve Jobs-hating, anti-establishment music snobs that relish vinyl helps a little. Having a product with extraordinary sound quality helps a bit more. Having very few competitors helps a lot. Having a hip-hop, DJ, record-spinning culture may be the golden ticket.
Is United Record Processing playing the role of the giant panda or black rhino in the music industry, successfully breeding in captivity for now, but most likely becoming extinct? I guess time will tell for both, but I would imagine that there will be some compelling technology that will someday make DJ’s leave the vinyl at home.
I’ve seen these iPod Mixers, but I’m guessing they are the laughing stock of the DJ community for now. Let’s wait for version 2.0 and 3.0 of digital turntables and see if United can truly survive.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
That Ipod mixer looks rediculous. That’s the sort of thing you see in cheesy sports bars that double as a late-nite dance club, kicking out such timeless classics as “I Will Survive.”
I have a tough time imagining John Digweed using one of these things. Not being one up on the DJing community, I would be interested to know if I was totally off base.
Why I love vinyl~ memoirs of a retired Club Kid
New Years Eve 1997 at Axis in Boston. Bad Boy Bill and Frankie Bones were headlining the evening. This was my first time at a House club. Bad Boy Bill came on and all you could here was a deep bass groove and insanely fast scratching. He started mixing records in thirty second intervals, and with each track he mixed out of he took the record and smashed into pieces on a pole next to his decks. I was in love!
There is just something romantic about 2 MK 2 decks and vinyl. I have to admit I mix with my CDJ’s (cd turntables) more now than the technics, but vinyl has personality. Analog has punch! Vinyl has character, and turntables are sexy, finicky, and expensive to maintain just like a good woman.
CDJ’s are nice though. They have precise and easy to transport. The thing thats great about digital music is you can have a producer in Sweden make a track, post it on Beatport, and you can buy it and burn the same day. By the time you turn around a making vinyl, it’s already out of date.
With all that, I will always buy vinyl at 6 times the prices of a down loadable track that you actually even pay for. Nothing sounds, feels, or turns me on as much as vinyl.
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