Here's an excellent editorial by record store owner, Colin Tappe, recently published on Record Collector News. Many of his thoughts have crossed my mind as I see reissues reissued, and new releases released. Here are a couple of choice quotes. Read the entire article here.
Major labels notoriously blew it in the
‘90s by killing the single as a format and outrageously overpricing CDs,
which of course lead to the downloading revolution and the crippling of
an industry. Now that they’ve been given a chance to redeem themselves
with the resurgence of interest in vinyl, not only are they shooting
themselves in the foot, but it’s the same foot, the same gun, and
they’re even reusing the bullet!
What the labels propagating these high priced reissues overlook is how
vital teenagers are to the future of “the industry.” Of course teenagers
and college kids generally aren’t dropping four figures on rare soul
45s or scrutinizing matrix etchings by any means, but the ancient craft
of taking your allowance to the record store and seeing how far you can
stretch it is alive and well. Every day I sell records to high school
aged kids, and you don’t have to listen very closely to hear them groan
and lament the high price tags on the reissue du jour as they flip past
to swoop on the $5-$10 Van Halen and Black Flag records (and Rush,
too…who knew kids were so into Rush these days?).
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