From doing my own downsizing and selling off a lot of vinyl, I can say that one reason there is so much classical is paradoxically that classical vinyl is just about worthless. I enjoy my local second-hand shop (Double Decker in Allentown) which is patronized by punks (who adore avant-garde jazz, Sun Ra and all that), and country, soul etc has its fans, but I have watched tons of classical vinyl hauled away virtually for junk. Last week I looked through 40 or so boxes of it and next time I go there it will be gone; they can't display it properly and they don't have room for it, and it's getting worse: old people are getting rid of their collections (or their heirs are doing it for them) and the few people who are interested in pawing through it are buying less. The Princeton Record Exchange doesn't want it at all and there's another shop in the Germantown area ditto.
Certainly most of the stuff I see is easily available on CD; it's obvious what was a best-seller in the 1960s and '70s (how many copies of Van Cliburn's Tchaikovsky piano concerto would you like?) There are lots of budget records like Nonesuch, and mail-order stuff like Musical Heritage Society, even ten-inch Musical Masterpiece Society, but not so much really early stuff. I myself am always looking for original Vox editions of, say, Jascha Horenstein, but I see only the budget-priced reissues.
I think probably most classical fans are much more interested in the music itself, and less likely to get into the retro aspect of vinyl, or even to have a turntable.
Donald Clarke
On Aug 12, 2013, at 10:22 AM, [log in to unmask] wrote:
Just wondering why there is so much classical to be had.
Is this because:
So much classical has been re-released on CD?
Classical collectors are an older lot and prefer the simplicity of a CD player?
Classical collectors are quicker to adopt new & better sounding formats?
Is classical less collectible than other genres?
Of course all of these questions are certainly arguable.
I'm just wondering.
joe salerno
On 8/11/2013 4:26 PM, Michael Biel wrote:
> David Lewis wrote:
>>> http://www.thevinylfactory.com/vinyl-factory-news/new-york-public-library-puts-vinyl-archive-up-for-sale
>>> Sorry, in my opinion, an outrage. David N. Lewis
>
> I'm surprised at Dave's reaction because that article starts "Over
> 22,000 duplicates go on sale to the public." and then continues
> "Representing decades of unsolicited donations of records that are
> already archived in mint condition,..." I had linked to a number of
> detailed and illustrated articles on facebook but it seems that my
> recent email problems lost the links I had tried to post here. R&H had
> been been blogging with photos for a week or so.
>
> http://rharecordsale.tumblr.com/
>
> http://www.nypl.org/blog/author/818
>
> Leah was there on Friday, and apparently most of the popular and shows
> went on Thursday. It was mainly classical. 22,000 LPs is not that huge
> an amount, New Yorkers have become very jaded because of all of the
> great disposals in the past 5 years or so. I'm still sorting and
> shelving the hauls I got when Footlights closed. B. George had
> thousands of classical LPs being practically given away a few years ago
> at the ARC sales. Acadamy always haves loads of classical LPs. Back in
> the 70s and 80s the R&H sales were legendary because of the 78s.
>
> Mike Biel [log in to unmask]
>
> -------- Original Message --------
>
> From: Roger Kulp <[log in to unmask]>
>> Well I got a look here.
> http://news.msn.com/pop-culture/nyc-library-selling-22000-vinyl-lps-for-dollar1-each
>
>> And I wasn't impressed. Roger
>
> From: [log in to unmask]>
>>> not to mention more John Gary records than you could shake a stick at...> >
>
> On Aug 9, 2013, at 4:56 PM, B. ARChive of Contemporary Music bARC
> wrote:
>>>> Relax all - these are 2d or 3d copies and main collection kept intact. >
>
--
Joe Salerno
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