Music Technology

Jack White Appeals To The Labels

In 2021, vinyl sale revenue grew by 61% in the states to a Billion Dollars according to the Recording Industry Association of America. But the major labels don’t have their own pressing plants, regardless of vinyl’s ever growing popularity. And unfortunately album pressings are delayed here in Canada as well.

Hopefully there won’t be any delays for Record Store Day on April 24th.

Early Shopping Recommended

Shipments of certain products are being delayed by multiple factors so most retailers are recommending that people shop early to get what they want for the holiday season. And unfortunately the domestic production of certain goods has also been hindered by the delayed importation of certain components, so you might want to consider shopping early.

This unfortunately also includes vinyl LPs due to a worldwide shortage of polyvinyl chloride, which is causing a backlog in vinyl manufacturing. And certain electronics that play music are also being delayed by the shortage in semiconductors.

Yes, deals can still be had at retailers like Amazon Canada, which decided to spread their Prime deals out over a longer period instead of having a Prime Day this year. And other retailers, like Microsoft Store Canadaicon and Sennheiser Canada, are offering discounts early to accommodate customers. But they may run out of certain items soon.

Your best bet would be to shop around to find the best deal and to buy or order your items immediately, especially if it’s being purchased from a retailer outside Canada.

Alibris: Books, Music, & Movies

Happy National Vinyl Day!

I was born in the 70’s so I grew up listening to my parent’s vinyl record collection; Some ABBA here, some Simon & Garfunkel there, and The Carpenters, Louise Tucker and a few greatest hits albums from pop artists in-between. But most of their collection comprised of opera, trumpet music, and classic recordings from Beethoven, Mozart, Albinoni, and Dvorak, which is probably why I tend to lean towards vinyl for those genres.

By the time I was buying music on my own in the late ’80s, I bought 45s and cassettes, the latter being more convenient for me when it comes to albums.

They were portable and you could compile your favorite 45’s to cassette. But I rarely bought full-length albums on vinyl because the high fidelity equipment was just too expensive in the sparsely populated area of New Brunswick I grew up in. And although compact discs were available, they were $25 or more so most of my collection ended up on cassette, which sounded comparable to vinyl to me.

Years later when I moved to Ottawa, I continued to purchase both cassettes and vinyl. And when compact discs started becoming available at reasonable prices the only reason I purchased vinyl was that the album wasn’t released on compact disc at the time, like Eye Eye’s “Just In Time To Be Late” and One To One’s “Forward Your Emotions

I had stopped buying full-length albums on cassette, buying only a few cassette singles on the side, and preferred compiling my favorite recordings off LP not only because it was cheaper but sounded better on cassette, CD-R, and higher bit rate WAV and MP3.

Coincidentally, one of my very last cassette purchases was Metallica’s self-titled “Black Album“, which was released 30 years ago today. And with that purchase I paused my vinyl collection, other than the rare backup recording, and having upgraded to compact disc and DVD audio, this collection pretty much remained in my basement and gathered dust until 2010 when I finally dusted off the record player and started to make copies of my rarer recordings to play on my Sony mp3 player, which had better bass than most of the other players I had tried.

I am now back to collecting vinyl reissues of my very favorite albums, like Fleetwood Mac’s “Tango In The Night” and Talk Talk’s “Natural History” because these have yet to be released in high fidelity formats like DVD audio or Blu-ray audio. And are not likely to be because streaming is what the industry appears to be interested in now.

The remastered 180 gram vinyl of the Black Album will be released in September and I’m still eyeing the 30th Anniversary remastered vinyl of Def Leppard’s “Hysteria“, both of which are clearly not going to be re-released on the aforementioned digital formats, regardless of their popularity, although quite frankly, I would have probably purchased the LPs had they been available on those formats anyway.

I’m probably going to bring a few home when I eventually go out and shop in the fall, when everything calms down.

Would any of you have a copy of the Japanese pressing of Platinum Blonde’s “Standing In The Dark” LP? 🙂

New Music Nation Lives!

New Music Nation will premiere online today at Noon eastern. And it will feature independent artists and their music videos, with emphasis on the Canadian industry, so don’t forget to tune in.

Much Music?

As you may or may not know, a campaign was organized by former Much Music personality Ed The Sock (also known as Steven Kerzner) to resurrect a more independently driven Much Music under the name “New Music Nation“. And that this Indiegogo campaign was successful, surpassing its goal of $35,000 by May 1st.

The above tweet has nothing to do with this campaign.

It’s been eight years since music was pulled off the channel and quite frankly I don’t think I will like a channel featuring the heads of pretty people reacting to music videos, which I suspect this zombie of a channel will be.

As a big fan of the original network, I will give it a chance. But I have serious doubt that their key demographic, millennials on TikTok, will want to watch the variety of genres featured on the previous Much Music. And I suspect the new content will feature the aforementioned reaction shots or multiple TikTok personalities dancing to the same material, in practically the same way.

The channel described in today’s press release just doesn’t sound as appealing as it should and I don’t know how independent rock and metal from Canada would fit in that environment, in comparison with the New Music Nation (which is set to debut on Canada Day).

I guess all we need to do is wait and see what they do with their revived programs. But i’m skeptical in regards to the remaining content, the snippets of TikTok simply not being my cup of tea.

Netflix Subject to GST/HST on July 1st

Netflix has advised their subscribers that their subscriptions will be subject to GST or HST, effective Canada Day 2021.