"We can order it for you..." aka... the day the music (shop) died...

[Denis]

I grew up on LPs as well, and still have all of mine, as well as a couple of 45s. Records won't skip if you take care of them and your turntable. I always kept mine clean and always put them back in the sleeves when I'm finished playing with them.

And, I sure have had cds fail to play on certain players. When you're cueing up 3 cd players with a bunch of surf or punk songs and CD player refuses to play it's CD it's real pain in the ass having to remove the cd in player 2 and swap them out.

I've had cds crack through the middle before because the tabs on the jewel case were too long and wouldn't release. And they will scratch, no matter what anyone says.

[gweimer]

An old friend of mine, who became a recording engineer (his cousin is a famous nutball guitarist), was an analog freak.  The big difference between vinyl and digital is the analog vs. digital signal.  I think the quality has caught up, but it took a lot of technology to get there.
Still, my friend had a stereo and turntable rig that he said was able to clearly show the difference between the two, and that the analog signal was superior.  Of course, he spent a small fortune doing it.  His turntable certainly didn't have a quarter resting on the tone arm to keep it from skipping.   

[Highlander]

Are you really telling me you've never broken an LP, ever, Denis...?

I still have quite a few LPs and Jackie still has her old C&W stuff but the turntable has not been out of the roof in a very long time - last time was to transfer some old (still unavailable) Loretta Lynn recordings, first to CDR, and now as MP3s...

At the peak of my vinyl junkiedom I had around 5000 LP's and 2000 45's - I broke or scratched plenty of them due to slovenly handling - I'm cured now...

No matter how hard I tried, Gary, I never perfected the turntable for the white-van-man...

Hasn't Neil Young settled on Bluray for his audiophile obsessions...?

[jumbodbassman]

i still have my vinyl,   about 750 or so but i must admit i usually just put on the cd as it is easier and they are right there instead of in my storage room.

[Pilgrim]

I will say that I'd have enjoyed doing my years in radio broadcasting when I could have used CDs rather than 45s.  But I probably would have been tempted to do multiple cuts off one CD.   It sure would have saved my listeners listening to a lot of crackly music at the start of 45s where they had been cued up too often. I still have 45s and LPs with bad crackle at the start from being cued up. 

[nofi]

you have to work hard to break a record. i never have except on purpose.

[chromium]

This thread seems like a good place to share this pic - funny, but sadly true! 

[Highlander]

LMFAO...!

I've dropped my #2 ipod several times and never scratched or snapped an MP3...

I used to work in a record shop during my shift work days at Heathrow in the 70's and the shop had a tiled floor behind the counter - an "edge-on" drop usually resulted in a write-off...

They make great but lethal frisbees too...

[Dave W]

[gweimer]

Grandpa, tell us about the days when every song on an album was good, and not just one.   

[Highlander]

... and those ten minute a side country releases...

[Dave W]

I thought this was interesting.

[Pilgrim]

THAT is a very cool graph, Dave!  Interesting to see where we've come from and where we are.  What's the source?

[nofi]

does that thing count only new sales or does it include used stuff on ebay and brick and mortar stores. i read recently that vinyl acounted for 7% of sales in 2011. for the past several years the records companies have been reissuing tons of old and new titles titles on heavy vinyl.

[Dave W]

The source is Digital Music News.

I don't think it covers used sales. They do have a current article about the increase in vinyl sales last year (and for the last few years).