Post #288282 by DJ Terence Gunn on Mon, Feb 26, 2007 2:19 PM

An appropriate and highly relevant question for these troubled and technologically trendy times, Tikiyaki! Hell, look what happened to media monster Tower Records U.S. (although there may be more to that story than meets the ears).

Not wishing to repeat the previous posts, I will express my opinion slightly differently, as well as pro and re-gressively.

Phase I: When I was a youngster and old enough to be interested in music (1970s), I bought 8-track, then vinyl.

Chronologically this is what then followed.....

Phase II (1980s), eliminate the 8-track, add cassettes.

Phase III (late 1980s), eliminate cassettes and the buying thereof, but still keep cassette recorders and blank cassettes to make compilations.

Phase IV (early 1990s) -- and far later than most! -- embrace CD technology, but continue collecting vinyl, and wishing that vinyl sounded like the quality of the CD.

Phase V (mid-1990s), getting furiously fed up with vinyl -- the crackles, the pops, the skips, the warping, the lack of availability, the lack of copyright dates; the dusty fingers and nasal passages from hours of sifting through used record bins, and rarely finding much of anything good; the expensive, hard to find and short-lasting phonograph needles; the heaviness and awkwardness of bringing vinyl anywhere to DJ with; etc., etc., etc.

Phase VI (also mid-1990s), get rid of nearly all my vinyl (as so much of it had been/was being released on CD, to my ecstatic reception, from the master tapes, and included so much more information in the liner notes, etc.), and record any out-of-print vinyl to CD. (The latter frustrated me to no end when, shortly after, some of what I recorded from vinyl to CD, was released from the master tapes to CD!)

Phase VII (additionally also mid-1990s): except as a curio from the past, vinyl is now my enemy. I argue constantly with snooty vinyl collectors and DJs: 'I can DJ a gig with 500 CDs conveniently located in one, easy-to-access carrying case -- many compilations containing songs I would potentially play, enhancing the variety and scope of my potential playlists, without cluttering up my travelled collection almost entirely with full-length albums, containing only 1-3 songs I would potentially play anyway; my music never skips, I don't require headphones, I don't require having to flip anything over, I can load and queue up songs in a matter of seconds, and I don't need a grounding wire. But you, you sad, vinyl snob DJ, struggling to your gig with crates of vinyl, and having only a minimal amount of material to choose from as a result, your obstinate devotion to the PVC platter has hindered you. Go back home to your living room where you and your vinyl belong!'

Phase VIII (late 1990s), what happened to the wonderfully progressive, historical preservation production of re-releasing out-of-print niche-genre albums onto CD? Cripe! Now I must find the vinyl again and record it onto CD, or start a poll to get the album released on CD! Great big, bouncing, buggering bollocks!

Phase IX (mid-2000s), online file and album sharing? Brilliant! And it's free? Though I love many examples of album art, being always more interested in the music, than in the source of where the music came from or the format it comes on, free and pay per online music format downloads are my new devotion. It may take a lot of time and research to find what one is looking for (especially when one's library of music is already extensive), but the journey is well worth the time and effort, and money saved. It's an alternative form of shopping.

Phase X (2005-today), though I was initially and violently against it, laptop DJing (or HDJing, as I call it) is even more convenient than lugging about CDs, CD players, and a mixer. And not only that, I have available to me far, far more music than I would care to bring whilst DJing with my CD players and massive CD wallets. (A bit of an overkill, I know, and of course I would never get round to playing all that I have -- even within one particular genre -- but it's nice to have the option.)

As far as buying CDs, not often anymore. Of course, I have thousands already, and don't require more. What I do require is the music from the past that is no longer issued. Should such music from the past be reissued from the master tapes I will buy the CD. Otherwise, I will stick to free downloads and ripping vinyl to disc. And I should note that I back up all my downloads and album shares on disc, so they're not just on my computer -- or in other's cases, their iPod.

[ Edited by: DJ Terence Gunn 2007-02-26 14:26 ]