They said it, not us:
“Vinyl Subscription Services Are the Laziest Thing Ever: Decades ago, owning an album required leaving your house and sometimes driving dozens (!) of miles to a record store. There, you’d have hundreds — maybe even thousands! — of titles to choose from. If more than one album cover enticed you, you might have to ask the store’s employees some questions. What a bore.”
“Some industry sources also have skepticism about vinyl subscription clubs. “They don’t prioritize any artist that isn’t getting premium placement across all formats,” says an employee at one independent label. ‘It’s very much a digital mail-order Urban Outfitters. It’s not like in the tradition of vinyl collecting. Does it encourage people to shop for vinyl, to get into vinyl, or do people stay in this one realm of getting vinyl?'”
Which is why we think where you spend your money is a political statement: “Nik Pollinger, a digital anthropologist who advises companies on the factors that motivate consumer behavior, told TIME in an email, “What we display in public is used to send social signals about our identities. Making our taste in music visible has historically played an important role in such signalling for many people.” Owning a vinyl collection, of course, “restores this ability.”
“By now, news has spread about Quebec’s RIP-V record pressing plant closing its doors. Since making the announcement in mid-December, a new Calgary-based plant is set to open this year called Canada Boy Vinyl, and replace RIP-V as Canada’s only record pressing plant.”
Every format under the sun, even: “Forget vinyl, producer Trevor Jackson is bringing back mini discs and reel-to-reel”
