Articles - Record Connection - Phone: (717) 733-1641 recordconnection@earthlink.net


< < < BACK				NEXT > > >

Forever Vinyl
				Alicia Androich Canadian Business Toronto Sep 3, 2001


Move over, CDs. The vintage record is making a comeback. John Mah gushes like a kid on Christmas morning as he recounts that fateful day in Ottawa. Two years ago, he was in a mall when he decided to take a quick peek in a used record store. He discovered a box of roughly 30 rare jazz records, mostly first pressings by '50s and '60s artists like Miles Davis, Bill Evans and Jackie Mclean. Sensing that he might have stumbled onto something valuable, he immediately phoned a friend, a music aficionado in San Francisco. The friend's advice about the fluke find: "Buy now or cry later." Mah ended up maxing out his credit card -he bought 25 of the albums for a total of about $900. You may not think that one of the founders of Delano Technology Corp., a company that specializes in customerrelationship management software, would be a hard-core record buff, but that's exactly what Mah is. In part, it's the hunt itself that drives collectors like him to spend hours hunched over crates of LPs, like archeologists analyzing a rare find. "The thrill of finding something you've wanted for a long time is comparable to drinking 12 shots of espresso in 15 minutes," says Mah. And there's a badge of honor that comes with discovering a must-have pressing."It's an addiction," explains Gary Crawford, a security systems installer in Mississauga, Ont., who has spent more than $60,000 on his vinyl collection over the past 13 years. "When you come across a hard-to-find record, that's your energy." Club DJs have always used vinyl to spin their magic, but with the mainstreaming of urban music in recent years, records have experienced a sort of retro resurgence. By sampling snippets of classic tunes, disc jockeys have lent a hand in the popularity of collecting vintage albums. But the main draw for many vinyl buffs is finding a record from a favorite artist or era. When Mah, 30, started listening to jazz about five years ago, he decided to build his own collection of vintage jazz LPs. Today, he owns almost 2,000 albums, which have cost him roughly $25,000. One of his most impressive finds is a collection of original UK pressings of Beatles albums discovered in an old radio shop. His prized possession? Charlie Parker's 1950 recording, New Sounds in Modern Music, which he bought from a Japanese seller for US$150. Paul Lopes, a DJ and music dealer who organizes record sales in Toronto, has seen vinyl fiends spend their rent money at sales. While Lopes says he would never go that far (he spends an average of $5 per record), he understands how it can happen. "When you see that record in front of you that you've always wanted," he says, "there's no way you could let it sit there, no matter what the cost." The reason: many of these albums, from '50s jazz tracks to '70s folk songs, will never be reissued on CD. That is one of the reasons Jeff Healey, a Toronto jazz and blues musician best known for his hit song"Angel Eyes;' has been buying records for almost 30 years. Healey's collection of 78s numbers more than 25,000. "If I don't have a record here on my shelf, I want it," he says. "I can be kind of fanatical in that respect." Akihiro Abe, owner of Cosmos Records, a vintagerecord store in Toronto, says it's the limited quantity of many pressings that makes them special. "It's like diamonds or gold," he explains. "There's a certain amount of supply in the rare records market, which has an economic effect on prices." The costs of becoming a serious collector can add up at the speed of a Dizzy Gillespie instrumental. A new record will cost between $12 and $40, but collectors can easily spend more than $1,000 on a rare release. And they're not deterred by the steep prices. "Inevitably, you're going to be dishing out the cash because money is still in print, records are not;' says Abe, who started his business almost four years ago after working as an auditor and corporate tax accountant at Ernst & Young. About 10% of the records in his store are priced at more than $300. These days, the hottest sounds are hip-hop breaks, funk, Brazilian and disco. Abe recently spent $900 on a single album for his personal collection. It's one of the most sought-after Brazilian records in the world-a 1967 album by Mario Castro Neves that he bought from a dealer in Brazil. As for the monetary value of wax (a term often used by collectors, though it's actually vinyl), Abe believes collecting records is a better investment than RRSPs: "The return on investment is much higher and the risk is much lower because the market has been consistent for the past 15 or 20 years all over the world." There is a huge market for finds in Japan and Europe, where rare records routinely go for anywhere from $100 to $1,500. Trading with dealers or friends is a huge part of the collecting game. "The liquidity of records is incredible," says Abe. "Collectors can buy a record for $10 and get double the return on it in 10 minutes." But why would diehards sell records they've spent years collecting? Often collectors accumulate doubles that they'll later trade or sell, says Mah. Or sometimes they decide to get rid of music they no longer listen to in order to make room for new additions. As with buying, the selling price of records depends on their condition. An album with a cover that's protected by a plastic sleeve and a scratchfree playing surface is obviously worth more than a warped disc. Original releases, rare imports and soul tracks that have been sampled by modern DJs will fetch you the best price from a dealer. And although many wax collectors reject digital technology, they have no qualms about using the Internet to scour for wax treasures. Who would have thought, when records were first manufactured more than 100 years ago, that pressed vinyl would become a collectors' item? Since the late 1800s, there have been numerous variations to the original 78 r.p.m. record, which was made from a mixture of shellac and slate dust. The most widely known record, the LP (meaning "long playing"), measuring 30 centimetres in diameter, was commercially introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. It was made of vinyl, rotated at 33 1/3 r.p.m. and played 20 to 30 minutes on each side. The 45 r.p.m. disc, which at 18 centimetres was roughly half the size of the LP, followed soon after, in 1949. The new 45 discs, which played only about three minutes a side, gave rise to the era of jukeboxes. The sound quality of 45s is substantially better than that of 78s, but both are still oldschool forms of music listening, especially considering all the new formats that have come along to replace them: eight-tracks, cassettes, CDs and now MP3s. But if you get vinyl supporters on the topic of why they prefer the analog sound to that of CDs, they'll go on and on like-well, like a broken record. "Record sound gives you a down-to-earth feel that's not so sterile," says Lopes. "Music is human expression, and nothing human is really perfect. You don't need music that's crystal clear. A little snap, crackle, pop or a flaw isn't such a bad thing." Mah thinks that the imperfections you sometimes hear on old vinyl recordingslike clinking glasses and ringing phones -transport listeners to another time and place. "Vinyl can sound very organic," he says. "There have been cases where I was convinced I was in the venue." In Europe and Japan, much of mainstream music is still pressed on vinyl, as well as CD. But in North America, the music industry ended the mass production of records in the late 1980s in favor of CD sound. Lopes thinks the change in formats was nothing more than a cash grab by the music industry, designed" to convince you to get all your Beatles albums on a new format," he says. But many audiophiles, who have elevated collecting to a cult-like obsession, are unwilling to jump on the digital bandwagon. After all, CDs may offer a clearer, polished sound, but an old Sammy Davis Jr. LP is a piece of history. ALICIA ANDROICH [Sidebar] WHEELS OF STEEL Now that you're feeling nostalgic, and you want to give that Led Zeppelin collection in the basement a spin, you'll need a reliable record player. You can find a wide array of turntables at thrift shops or garage sales, with prices ranging from $10 to $300. The longtime standard among serious collectors and DJs is the Technics 1200, but this sleek model will set you back a lot more than what your warped Burton Cummings stash is worth. A new Technics 1200 turntable costs roughly $800, but comeswith the satisfaction of knowing that no other brand has been able to duplicate its user-friendliness and quality. Another advantage isthat it will probably last longer than some of your records. Once you have your spiffy new deck, no matter what the brand, you'll need to factor in the cost of replacement needles. With regular playthat means no crazy DJ scratching tricks-needles generally last about two years and cost anywhere from $45 to $200. Before you play your vinyl, it's a good idea to wipe the surface of the disc with a water and alcohol solution and a soft cloth to get rid of any dirt or dust that may have gathered since your last spin. And be sure to avoid scratches and fingerprints-you don't want to ruin that rare Stan Getz pressing. Happy listening! Copyright CB Media Ltd Sep 3, 2001
< < < BACK				NEXT > > >