Vinyl Record Expert in a Week

May 24, 2018 9:59 AM

I'm interested in learning more about the physical recorded music industry, especially record collecting and the vinyl industry. Can you recommend some articles, blogs, podcasts, TV shows and documentaries?

I know a lot, but I want to be an EXPERT. I'm looking for a comprehensive overview of things like RPM, grading conditions, etc ~plus~ additional content about record collecting culture.

posted by Juliet Banana to Media & Arts (10 answers total)

To start: are you a member of the Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC)? That would be one good place to start- you do not have to be a member to join their listserv, which is often a source of lively debate. Plus their Publications to get you started with some reading.

I realize you want to up your expertise level in a week, and this is more for long term knowledge acquisition, but a lot of those experts you can learn from are ARSC members and the listserv gives you a way to ask them direct questions. Also note that ARSC tends to be a little biased toward classical/ragtime/jazz recordings as well as 78s, acetate/lacquer, etc.
posted by nightrecordings at 10:44 AM on May 24, 2018

45 RPM: The History, Heroes, and Villains of a Pop Music Revolution could have been edited to about half its length, but it's got a good history of the format wars to replace 78s, plus a detailed explanation of how a piece of music went from a recording to a physical object. There's an interesting bit about how the 45 format, with a b-side that generated as much in royalties as the a-side, was an efficient vehicle for exploiting artists. There are probably better sources out there for each of these topics, but this one was a quick read, even with the padding.

Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting and Do Not Sell At Any Price are deep dives into the collecting culture--quite literally, for the latter, which is from a rare non-dude voice.

For the collectors as lonely middle-aged obsessive trope, there's the documentary Vinyl and the fictional but close-to-home Ghost World. On the other hand, the website Dust and Grooves has profiles of crate diggers who seem to get out of their dens every now and then, and the podcast Coffee and Donuts, where the host invites guests to bring over a stack of 45s and talk about their collecting habit (or anything else).

As for grading, you probably are familiar with Goldmine as the standard. A record can sound better or worse on different systems, and if you buy records online you will definitely find sellers who grade leniently.
posted by hydrophonic at 11:18 AM on May 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Library of Congress has a pretty comprehensive list of recommendations and resources for the physical care and storage of vinyl, an important but oft-overlooked aspect.
posted by juliplease at 11:38 AM on May 24, 2018

The Discogs blog has a lot along these lines, but their index seems to be broken right now (I put in a bug report so it hopefully gets fixed soon).
posted by rhizome at 11:57 AM on May 24, 2018

I recommend touring a record-pressing plant; I did it years ago and it was fascinating.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:05 PM on May 24, 2018

For more on the history of 45s, check out Fran Blanche.
posted by hydrophonic at 9:01 PM on May 24, 2018

Response by poster: hydrophonic, Fran Blanche's channel is amazing! Are there more of her videos like this you'd particularly recommend? There's a LOT on her page to go through.
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:42 PM on May 26, 2018

The only other one I've watched is the one where she goes through different record cleaning techniques (although she doesn't do so well with the glue trick).
posted by hydrophonic at 7:11 AM on May 28, 2018

I know a lot about vinyl, but learned all I know in the real world so have no links to share with you.

Feel free to hit me up in Memail if you have specific questions about something. I've been making my living with it since 2005. (As for the documentary, Vinyl, linked above, I know pretty much everyone in it, including the director.)

If you at all have an interest in jazz vinyl, you might want to read this book on Blue Note.
posted by dobbs at 8:30 PM on August 4, 2018

Oh, and the most useful skill you can teach yourself is how to interpret the scrawlings and markings in the deadwax / runout.
posted by dobbs at 8:35 PM on August 4, 2018