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A occasional series dealing with the exciting world of contemporary vinyl collecting.
My wife has been noticing; more and records have been arriving by mail.
It is my response to an ever more intense situation. The vinyl record collecting market remains red hot in 2024. It has been like this for a while.
It was Friday, April 5th, 2019, and I naively thought I could go to the record store and pick up a copy of Weyes Blood’s new album, Titanic Rising, on colored vinyl. I had done this with Natalie Merring’s prior albums without a problem, being a fan of her work since making her acquaintance during her time living in Baltimore. The clerks told me, “Sorry, nope! Big supply chain problems.” The Titanic was not going to rise for me, here or elsewhere.
As I pounded my fist and gnashed my teeth outside of my third or fourth record store, I vowed to the heavens. “As God as my witness, I’ll never miss a limited vinyl release again!”
And so it has gone.
This pre-order game I have been playing ever since has, of course, gotten even more intense. You have about as many minutes as folks had to get Kraftwerk MoMA tickets online back in 2012 to get in on the extra special limited edition before it sells out. Shortly after, the regular limited edition sells out. Many times, I has been like trying to get those Trapped Under Ice Ottobar tickets… gone before I could even click on the link.
But this too shall pass. The market will cool. A new/old format will return.
And here is where I make my case: forget buying those vinyl discs at Trax on Wax. What you really need is your music on wax! Literally!
We need to go back to the true old school. If everything has to be on vinyl now, even if it was not originally or initially intended to be, what we really need is the return of the original authentic music media: The Edison Wax Cylinder.
Does it check all the boxes in terms of what vinyl collectors crave? Absolutely.
Limited? Check! There is no way of mass producing a wax cylinder, making each recording one of a kind!
Heavy? Check! Forget 180 gram. The recording machine itself is 18 pounds!
Fragile? Check! The recordings are on literal wax! Even Benjamin Franklin knew about that.
Analog Warmth? Check! You think you’ve heard some nostalgic pops and crackles from the surface noise on your favorite LP? Check out this banger from 1910!
Unnecessarily Expensive? Check! Forget 50 dollars to buy a limited color double vinyl edition of an album you already have (but with a few new tracks on it). How about a grand just to play the media at all?
So, remember… you heard it here first. The next time you are in that frosty pre-dawn line on Black Friday? Start the conversation. Tay-Tay remains bae, and you suspect she will soon see the potential of opening up a new line of revenue for her IP.
Pass it on!
“Psst! I hear Edison Wax Cylinders are making a comeback.”
