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drop
17th February 2005, 17:09
Vinyl Farewell

Spine magazine

It looks as though audiophiles may have to resign themselves to the fact that in a few years time there will be only the chance to fondly re-live the good old days of nostalgia, rather than experience the new. Vinyl, the medium that took over from Shellac, Bakelite and even earlier the wax pressing, has had its final play – well, almost. The year 2009, looks set to be the final turn in the long standing vinyl revolution.

A June 2003 press release from The Institute of Chemical Engineering, advised that key by- products of the current petroleum refining process would no longer be generated by 2009, due to deadlines agreed, in principle, with the chemical industry back in 1992. These deadlines were however, only finalised in 1999, in the face of increasing environmental concerns and lobbying.

The IoCE went on to advise that a voluntary co-funded research and development program to seek a green alternative, possibly a polycarbonate based compound had been proposed in the 1999 summary. However no members of the industry wide syndicate had been able to substantiate a sufficiently high market demand for a replacement for the petroleum by-product, which is the primary base for vinyl record albums.

Whilst concluding that the news marked “The end of an era for vinyl”, a spokesperson of music retailing giants Tower Records advised that with sales of collective vinyl products accounted for less than a third of a percent (0.28%) of their total music sales World-wide in the last accounting period. “Hardest hit will be the few remaining traditionalist vinyl Disc Jockeys” Tower Records confirmed.

Tower replied positively when asked if this early warning would mean a silence in the thousands of DJ booths and radio stations around the world. “For some, existing skills will need to be adapted for use with the rapidly advancing Compact Disc DJ equipment” continued Towers spokesperson., “it promises to be a very exciting transition as older techniques are retained and used alongside the plethora of new features that CD technology already offers todays forward thinking DJ’s and turntablists”. Towers spokesperson added “It is unlikely that we will continue to carry vinyl into 2009. We believe the needs of the DJ will be totally digital, in one medium or another, prior to the cessation date.”“

Radio stations and other areas of the broadcasting community are unlikely to be affected by this early warning of environmental issues validating the need for minor lifestyle changes either,. since almost a of the music played in a modern broadcast scenario is primarily CD, or from Digital archives owned under licence by the larger radio stations.


ya'll have 4 more years of vinyl bliss
the part where Tower records asserts the there are only a "few remaining traditionalist vinyl djs"
what the hell
they don't have great vinyl sales
so obviously it means that everyone is using cds
the italian dj bust means that cds are popular because illegal downloading is popular
i really don't know any cd dj that actually buys the cds he/she uses in a set
very depressed
i need a drink

i suppose i'm going to have to rock tonights set for old times sake.
:(

Paddy
17th February 2005, 17:15
yeah, read about this over on basterdizied. another medium will be found, methinks.

decadnids
17th February 2005, 17:28
umm cant they just recylce all the crap stuff that is on vinyl and press new ones.

pille'ocheoni
17th February 2005, 17:29
this cant be true. this makes me extremely angry. i have to press an album before this happens. fuck

Sheridan
17th February 2005, 17:38
Originally posted by decadnids
umm cant they just recylce all the crap stuff that is on vinyl and press new ones.

you can, but the quality is seriously diminished. Trax records used to do this and they sounded like crap.

decadnids
17th February 2005, 17:40
Originally posted by Sheridan


you can, but the quality is seriously diminished. Trax records used to do this and they sounded like crap.

ah ok - but why is the quality diminished?

Sheridan
17th February 2005, 17:42
you know, you got me there. that is what I have always heard/read. and once I met a fella who had an original trax record that had been through that process and it did indeed sound bad.

grobelaar
17th February 2005, 17:44
I think if you grind the old records up good and proper - it's no different from using fresh vinyl...

I'm off to start stockpiling collections of old charity shop vinyl...

drop
17th February 2005, 17:44
i agree with you sheridan
i used to go to gramaphone in chicago and pick though the old trax shit
alot of it sounded like a worn out tape

grobelaar
17th February 2005, 17:49
I bet loads of people here who buy vinyl have records made from reground vinyl and they don't even know it. Trax were just shit at manufacturing records - using badly recycled records just exacerbated the problem

Sheridan
17th February 2005, 17:52
Originally posted by grobelaar
I bet loads of people here who buy vinyl have records made from reground vinyl and they don't even know it. Trax were just shit at manufacturing records - using badly recycled records just exacerbated the problem


fair enough. I remember reading a thread on Discogs and frankie bones was talking about the whole 'recylced' vinyl thing. I just don't remember what was said and all. damn you pot and the damage you have done!!:-p

M H
17th February 2005, 17:55
everything pressed at curved (i.e. Mosquito, Noodles etc) has a certain amount of reground vinyl in it, in fact one of the shitty jobs you can get in the pressing plant is on the regrinder, grinding down old records and recycling the vinyl.. and to be honest I can't see places like curved shutting down with so much money and time invested... they've been harping on about the death of vinyl for years, to be honest I think the only thing that will kill it is when people stop buying it.. as usual, market forces dictate everything, so I wouldn't start paniking yet...

M H
17th February 2005, 17:57
in fact the real problem from reground vinyl only comes if the labels are not removed properly, so long as the vinyl is clean then it should be no different to brand new vinyl...

Sheridan
17th February 2005, 17:57
well then I guess I stand corrected.

Patrick
17th February 2005, 18:17
Originally posted by M H
in fact the real problem from reground vinyl only comes if the labels are not removed properly, so long as the vinyl is clean then it should be no different to brand new vinyl...

That was the problem with the Trax vinyl. I read that they didn't even bother making any attempt to remove the labels a lot of the time, hence all the visible impurities and lumps on the old Trax releases.



Anyway, this whole article seems suspect. Since when have Tower records been "the knowledge" on vinyl ? And when you google to try and find the original IOCE (whoever they are) press release, you end up getting a load of hits for threads just like this on other music forums, but nothing about the original press release.

M H
17th February 2005, 18:41
Originally posted by Patrick
Since when have Tower records been "the knowledge" on vinyl ?

errr... never?

drop
17th February 2005, 18:54
yeah yer right
Virgin's "the knowledge" on vinyl

Hagbard
17th February 2005, 19:01
Maybe it's just time to move on..

Mirsha
17th February 2005, 19:13
This one went around last month, one of the guys on the list emailed his brother about it and got this response.


I think the article that Seneca forwarded to me about vinyl records is a
bunch of BS. First of all, I have never heard of the IOCE (Institute of
Chemical Engineering). I am a member of AIChE (American Institute of
Chemical Engineers). Secondly, the "key petroleum byproduct" no longer
being generated sounds like bunk. Oil is used to make a wide variety of
chemicals, including precursors to vinyl plastics. Vinyl records are
made from poly(vinyl chloride):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinyl_record I've never heard of anyone
outlawing PVC pipe for plumbing (also made from poly(vinyl chloride)).

Mirsha
17th February 2005, 19:17
Oh yeah don't forget you can't find the IoCE on Google. Must be a highly prestigous body thats too good for the internet.

drop
17th February 2005, 20:11
its a fake
but it does bring up an interesting point
most of the people here go on about oil, war, and corporations and here we are holding on to little slabs of vinyl - something made from oil.
now
i'm not endorsing the replacing vinyls with cds, i hate using cdjs, they suck, but could it be too much to ask for something that doesn't use oil as a base and still retains the same size, shape, and weight of a 12"

Sheridan
17th February 2005, 20:13
with the technological advancements we have made in just the last 25 years alone, I am sure that there is some kind of space age polymer that could be used and also wouldn't wear out as quickly as vinyl.

Ruben A
17th February 2005, 21:06
blablabla..

Mirsha
17th February 2005, 21:06
Teflon vinyls for protection on re-entry after dropping a crackin tune maybe?

grobelaar
17th February 2005, 23:13
Originally posted by drop
its a fake
but it does bring up an interesting point
most of the people here go on about oil, war, and corporations and here we are holding on to little slabs of vinyl - something made from oil.
now
i'm not endorsing the replacing vinyls with cds, i hate using cdjs, they suck, but could it be too much to ask for something that doesn't use oil as a base and still retains the same size, shape, and weight of a 12"

Don't CD use oil too? they're made out of plastic (mostly).

JE:5
18th February 2005, 01:17
The vinyl curtain.

pongoid
18th February 2005, 01:53
Between 80% and 95% of all products made from petroleum can be made from hemp oil. I don't recall the stat and it changes as new processes are developed, but most plastics can be made from hemp oil instead of petroleum. Imagine...pot powered records.

7875
18th February 2005, 03:24
someone will come up with something new to press records on don't you think? how about old taffy?

pille'ocheoni
18th February 2005, 04:02
i hope the have the energy and time to come up with something new. btw how is vinyl sales doing?

is there a statistic on what vinyl is selling nowadays?

drop
18th February 2005, 05:04
this brings a smile to my face

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/07/07/nvinyl07.xml

wheezer
18th February 2005, 07:22
Originally posted by M H
everything pressed at curved (i.e. Mosquito, Noodles etc) has a certain amount of reground vinyl in it, in fact one of the shitty jobs you can get in the pressing plant is on the regrinder, grinding down old records and recycling the vinyl.. and to be honest I can't see places like curved shutting down with so much money and time invested... they've been harping on about the death of vinyl for years, to be honest I think the only thing that will kill it is when people stop buying it.. as usual, market forces dictate everything, so I wouldn't start paniking yet...

exactly. it might well be that it's not profitable for tower to sell vinyl anymore, but I don't shop at tower (anymore), hence I don't give a fat flying fuck.