99% of music nowadays is produced digitally, so when it comes to physical media, lossless sound can only really be achieved through CDs.

No one on this forum is listening to music made before 1960 anyway, so the whole "analog warmth" argument feels a little irrelevant.

Vinyls are also insanely overpriced and can deteriorate pretty easily from fingerprints, dust, scratches, etc. Why own not one, but three copies of the same album just because the color is different on each of them?

So… are vinyls basically a scam when it comes to sound quality? And if you don't collect them for that purpose, then why?

Discuss!

When your fave ships unfinished vinyls to fans yes but otherwise in general no.

Yes, just stream it

I've always collected CD's and much prefer them, but vinyls are great for aesthetics (so many album covers look so gorgeous being displayed) and I do enjoy playing them from time to time.

But definitely prefer playing CD's over vinyl or anything on bluetooth speakers. and turning over your vinyls and always having to be very careful with them is such a hassle.

3 minutes ago, TaylorsSquad said:

When your fave ships unfinished vinyls to fans yes but otherwise in general no.

But why spend $90 on a feces-brown splatter colored 24h exclusive vinyl that got bent in the mail when you can just press play on Apple Musique?

1 minute ago, Outbound said:

But why spend $90 on a feces-brown splatter colored 24h exclusive vinyl that got bent in the mail when you can just press play on Apple Musique?

They're just a fun collectors item at the end of the day.

The way they have been handled by the industry, mass producing completely useless variants, yes.

But they do sound gorgeous when you have a great sound system and are well made. Vinyls like the George Michael 'Older', Beyonce's Rennaissance and Spice Girls Forever are just gorgeous and sound so rich and full... streaming cannot compete, Im afraid.

I think vinyls are fine but they are a bit over priced. I don't understand why they can't be 20$ tops & double disk 30$.

Some add up to 50$/60$ & that's not even resale sales.

13 minutes ago, TaylorsSquad said:

When your fave ships unfinished vinyls to fans yes but otherwise in general no.

This. And if it's unfinished, disclose it beforehand and then there's no issue, or at least sell them for pennies like Abel did with HUT's first pressings being $15.

Well no! Sure there are stans out there that only collect them to collect and/or play them on suitcase players, but if you have a decent setup they're great and have a warmth to them that digital doesn't have And even if you are actually playing them, it's a fun, tangible collector's item.

I personally like the process and all that goes into the listening experience because my collection only has albums I exclusively enjoy back to back, but to each their own. I also like that the way I display them can set the mood of the room.

I also have CDs so I don't mind the variety of options for consuming music. It's the business model that feels like a scam with all these limited-time exclusives, surprise variants, etc. They abuse and lean hard into exclusivity to capitalize on fomo among fans.

Edited Tuesday at 10:05 PM4 days by Spicy Pisces

yes, it's been a huge hobby of mine for the past 6 or so years but now it has become a scam

$60 after shipping for a 1 LP, new pressings sounding like absolute garbage (looking at you, Petal), incomplete tracklists, tracklists for vinyl not being shared before release, signed inserts being autopen fraud, artists selling 7" singles for $30, pop girls releasing 8+ variants per album, it's all getting a little embarrassing.

as a collector, you can feel yourself being deliberately milked dry. so i've started selling off my collection. i will say, when i was laid off from my job, selling off some of my rare variants kept me afloat. but now nothing is really rare.

I've been back at collecting CD's, but still can bring myself to buy vinyls because of the pricing... they're way too expensive for something that, frankly, is mostly for retro vibe and aesthetics now.

36 minutes ago, Outbound said:

99% of music nowadays is produced digitally, so when it comes to physical media, lossless sound can only really be achieved through CDs.

No one on this forum is listening to music made before 1960 anyway, so the whole "analog warmth" argument feels a little irrelevant.

Vinyls are also insanely overpriced and can deteriorate pretty easily from fingerprints, dust, scratches, etc. Why own not one, but three copies of the same album just because the color is different on each of them?

So… are vinyls basically a scam when it comes to sound quality? And if you don't collect them for that purpose, then why?

Discuss!

32 minutes ago, TaylorsSquad said:

When your fave ships unfinished vinyls to fans yes but otherwise in general no.

28 minutes ago, BornUnbroken said:

I've always collected CD's and much prefer them, but vinyls are great for aesthetics (so many album covers look so gorgeous being displayed) and I do enjoy playing them from time to time.

But definitely prefer playing CD's over vinyl or anything on bluetooth speakers. and turning over your vinyls and always having to be very careful with them is such a hassle.

22 minutes ago, Mr.X said:

The way they have been handled by the industry, mass producing completely useless variants, yes.

But they do sound gorgeous when you have a great sound system and are well made. Vinyls like the George Michael 'Older', Beyonce's Rennaissance and Spice Girls Forever are just gorgeous and sound so rich and full... streaming cannot compete, Im afraid.

19 minutes ago, Appletree said:

I think vinyls are fine but they are a bit over priced. I don't understand why they can't be 20$ tops & double disk 30$.

Some add up to 50$/60$ & that's not even resale sales.

Vinyls is scammy since it's not a word.

The plural of vinyl is vinyl.

The more you know rainbow sparkle sparkle.

imo artists/teams view them as more of a merch item and not an actual format of the album to listen to which is being made incredibly obvious with the recent trend of several variants of the same album along with different versions being tied to different stores for promotional deals (Target, HMV, Urban Outfitters, Amazon, Spotify and more), along with the "limited time" releases Taylor, an extremely influential woman, has been doing. and that's not to mention the insane prices. for example, the new Beyonce B'Day vinyl is nothing short of outrageous. a good example to show the change in this sort of thing is Red (Taylor's Version) [2021] and THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY [2024] being $20 apart from each other despite containing the same amount of discs, and the latter not coming with any additional items. or Olivia's new album vinyl averaging $40 for most versions, when it was nothing besides the jacket and the disc, and the songs on the disc were unfinished versions, and there wasn't even an accurate tracklisting given to any version of the album. that situation is what really solidified the industry now seeing vinyl as merch and not music for me, because on streaming, she wouldn't have released an unfinished album where we couldn't look at the song titles. in fan culture, most people collect the variants to look at them and just play the album on their phone. that's a hundred percent fine, do whatever you want with their money, but i don't think vinyl selling is centered around wanting fans to have this way of listening to an album. it's wanting to push them to complete their merch collection, so that they can then post online about how they've completed their merch collection, so that the mindless followers of the artist will then go buy the "dirt in my eye brown splatter h&m exclusive" vinyl with the 3x3 poster! got sort of off topic but in conclusion, you could go either way about this. is it a scam when you're looking at it for its original intended use (to listen to an album)? probably. is it a scam when you're looking at it for its more modern use (to expand your collection of merch)? i would say no.

1 minute ago, on the line said:

Vinyls is scammy since it's not a word.

The plural of vinyl is vinyl.

The more you know rainbow sparkle sparkle.

1 minute ago, Mr.X said:

You can just say you're not bright too.

2 minutes ago, on the line said:

Vinyls is scammy since it's not a word.

The plural of vinyl is vinyl.

The more you know rainbow sparkle sparkle.

I uses English as me seconds language so I actually has no idea, thanks you.

2 minutes ago, on the line said:

Vinyls is scammy since it's not a word.

The plural of vinyl is vinyl.

The more you know rainbow sparkle sparkle.

girl wdgaf proper grammar is a social construct anyway, just like vinyls being $40 even when it's not a double disc, go correct that instead

6 minutes ago, on the line said:

Vinyls is scammy since it's not a word.

The plural of vinyl is vinyl.

The more you know rainbow sparkle sparkle.

I don't care enough about English to ever want to be grammatically correct.

Just now, TaylorsSquad said:

I don't care enough about English to ever want to be grammatically correct.

You sound like you'd be MAGA if you were American. Lmao

If its a collectable item then why would it be a scam? People want something tangible. Something to decorate their closet or room with. Many vinyls have posters, booklets and cool artwork included too. I wouldn't call it a scam.

Personally I don't like buying vinyl myself but everytime someone gifts me a vinyl I feel so happy. It's kinda the perfect gift for music loverz/gaes

this is probably the most offensive topic i've read on here in a while and i am literally not joking

or am i

If you buy Bionic on vinyl you have to listen to I Hate Boys and Bobblehead without skipping.

so Yes

Just now, on the line said:

You sound like you'd be MAGA if you were American. Lmao

Because I don't respect the English language I would be MAGA? Open the schools. You can simp for the English language all you'd like but leave me out of it.