Feb 282008
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When you buy a digital version of an album you already own on vinyl, do you discard or keep the vinyl? If you keep the vinyl, why?
You may include your personal history with cassette and 8-track tapes in this discussion, if you feel that’s necessary.
I keep the vinyl as a keepsake of sorts. If I’m repurchasing it as a CD, then that probably means it’s one of my favorite albums — for example Good Old Boys or Village Green Preservation Society. I can’t completely explain why I keep the vinyl, but it’s almost completely a sentimental gesture.
In fact, I actually own three versions of VGPS: The vinyl, the single-CD version Reprise put out in the late-’80s or so, and the triple-CD Sanctuary version that came out a couple years ago. Additionally, when three Pulp albums came out in double-disc editions in the UK not too long, I bought those, and held onto my original CD copies. With all the above artists, the semi-completest in me has a strong say in the way I collect their music.
Related to this question, I recently got around to owning an iPod after putting off having one for a while, and in the last month or so I’ve hit a kind of non-music-buying inertia because of it. I can’t decide if I should buy the actual CDs, which will end getting loaded onto the iPod and listened to that way most of the time anyway, or just making the jump to buying something via online stores. And so I haven’t bought anything at all recently.
CDs definitely do not engender the same kind of sentimentality that LPs did, so I’m wondering whether I really feel like having more of them to take up space and to lug around whenever I move again and all that, if I’m going to be less inclined to listen to the physical CDs in the future. On the other hand, physically having the album, even in CD format, still seems to “mean” more, which may be an increasingly irrational our outdated mode of thinking, but I still think that way.
i only throw away burned cd’s with nothing but handwriting on the exterior.
i keep everything.
it’s kind of sad, actually.
Saturnismine wrote:
What, you trying to tell me I should draw a picture of an alien on the next CD I burn you?
Like Oats, I keep the vinyl for sentimental reasons. I’ll never love a CD as much as I love a vinyl record, which doesn’t bode well for future purchases.
I also keep the album for Hipster Proof of Purchase reasons. My 3 vinyl copies (including one signed!) of Roy Wood’s Boulders proves that I’ve been cool for years leading up to that overlooked gem’s overdue release on CD. Or at least it proves that I’ve been a dork for some time.
Back atcha – if you throw away the vinyl, why?
I got rid of a fair amount of vinyl because I moved across the country. Took the damn CDs though. Most of the vinyl went to friends, so I feel like it’s out there if I really want it back.
I buy CD versions to minimize the wear and tear on my favorite records.
I’m loving what I’m hearing so far, Townspeople. A number of you have not yet reported in. I’m sure you’re formulating le mot juste. Thanks!
Out with the old. I burned CDRs of the vinyl music I wanted to keep and sold the LPs to a used record store en masse. I never looked back.
I came to the CD party a bit late — early 90s, I think — but early enough in my musical development that I was still buying tons of new music. So, for 10 years or so, I rarely bought stuff I already had on vinyl. With my advancing decrepitude (and the perceived increased pain-in-the-ass factor of vinyl), I started backfilling in CD format. By then, my vinyl was rotting away in my basement (in some cases, literally), and I couldn’t be jacked to pull it out.
Then I switched careers, became poor, and discovered thrift store music — the rest is history.
Speaking of which, I need to put together a new Thrifty Music comp, I think.
yes! please draw a picture or something. aliens are best!
dr. john, i make aiff files and put them on an external hard drive in order to preserve the vinyl. i hardly buy cd’s at all anymore.
but i still buy new vinyl.
I want to add that I have a rule about this that I almost never break:
If the CD version has only the same songs as the original vinyl, then I never buy the music on CD, although I’m glad to burn myself a free copy. But I allow myself to buy the CD if there is something additional that I don’t have on the vinyl.
I wanted to chime in on what Alexmagic mentioned in this thread. I still buy CDs, but I feel weird about it. Nowadays, especially pending an upcoming move, I look at my music collection and think to myself, “Jesus, look at all this crap.” It seems only a few months ago, I only noticed how much my collection lacked; I think I skipped the step where I felt complete pride of all the fine music I had amassed. Or perhaps I’m naive to think I can ever arrive at such a moment.
Nevertheless, I too feel a little weird at going the buying-online route fully. I’m no audiophile, but even I can tell the difference between most MP3s and CDs or vinyl (especially if listening on speakers bigger than headphones or my cheap, tiny computer speakers). I’ll sample stuff from iTunes and Amazon, a song here and there, the occasional full album if it’s something I want, but not too ardently. But I can’t imagine buying, say, the new Ray Davies album or the hypothetical next Wilco album online. As I said earlier, I fully expect to maintain my semi-completist attitude towards my favorite artists.
And, of course, it doesn’t help that I still discover the occasional new-to-me band (he scoffed cynically). Has anyone heard this Seattle band, The Cops. Kpdexter or 2000 Man, you know these guys? They rock! And I want the hard copy, dammit!
All depends on the quality of the pressing.package. No Columbia records past 1973 or so are worth keeping if you have a cd though, except maybe SANDANISTA…
With too much duplication around here
-db
Ah great topic Mr. Mod. In recent years, I’ve been able to find a lot of stuff I own on vinyl in digital form, but I’ve always kept the vinyl. Why? Well music just sounds and feels differently to me when I sit and listen to it on the record player in my living room as opposed to in my home office on a computer. Now I have pretty good computer speakers and generally I only download high-quality (almost lossless) files, but it’s just not the same. With that said, these days I have less and less time for close listening. Nevertheless, I still prefer vinyl and even if I decide to get rid of some things once I digitize my collection further (which will eventually happen if I get one of those USB-comptabile turntables), I’ll still keep my favorites.
For examples, I have every X album on vinyl (including the original Slash versions of the first 2 albums) up to See How We Are, but I also have all of them on CD as well. I bought all of them on CD when Rhino reissued them, though I had the CD that has the first 2 albums, but I got rid of it afterwards. Now this leads me to another point. Although I’ve bought lots of albums I already owned on vinyl again on CD, these days I make it a rule not do it unless I really love the album in question and as the theory above noted, only when there are bonus tracks, liner notes, etc. With everything so readily available digitally, I feel ripped off even doing this. There was a time when I was such a rabid completist that I would pay full price just to get one or two songs by an artist I didn’t have. However, the recent Elvis Costello reissue campaign is just such overkill that I’ve avoided it entirely. How many times so I have to buy the same album? I’m feeling similarly conflicted about the upcoming Replacements reissues, too. The Twin Tone era albums were just reissued 5-6 years ago, b8ut these new ones will have bonus tracks, etc.
Funny you should mention those Elvis Costello reissues, which seemed so calculated to drip out a few more bonus tracks each time, they turned me off to the artist a little as well (the same way the uber-merchandising of the Stones peeves me). The Ryko reissues are just fine with me.
I somehow resent the fact that someone thinks I want to spend a large chunk of my record budget constantly rebuying my 100 Favorite Albums while so much goes un-reissued.
I keep my vinyl. I’m too lame to haul it to a used shop in hopes of getting enough credit to buy a new CD or two.