BIRMINGHAM RECORD COLLECTORS
DEDICATED TO THE COLLECTING OF MUSIC, ITS PRESERVATION AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
SUNDAY, APRIL 10TH 2:00 PM
HOMEWOOD PUBLIC LIBRARY 1721 OXMOOR RD BIRMINGHAM, AL 35209
NEXT MEETING, MAY 1ST 2:00 PM – **THE FIRST SUNDAY**
THIS MONTH’S MEETING
Thanks to Bob, John and Todd for providing some great music at last month’s meeting. When we hear music like that that got very little if any airplay it always shows us that not all the nest music was played on the airwaves. Thanks, guys.
BRC Radio started in December 2015, took a short break and has been back on our website with weekly shows since January 2018. We now have 3 hosts doing shows. One of them will be with us at the April meeting as our guest speaker. Tom Faison joined BRC in August 2021 and began being a BRC Radio host in September 2021. Come and hear what got Tom into music and what type he enjoys the most and what made him want to do his podcasts for BRC. And there’s always vinyl for sale or even sometimes for free. See ya there!
Next month we plan on having a former employee of Columbia House Music and Reader’s Digest Music as our guest. More info next in next month’s newsletter.
IS VINYL BACK?
The two record collecting clubs in Birmingham, BRC and ARCA have had a combined 77 record shows over the past 5 decades. I have attended all except for about a dozen during that time and have seen the record selling market go through many changes. Remember when the CD came into existence in the early 80’s? Vinyl sales held its own but CD’s did make a dent as the 90’s arrived and less vinyl was issued and also buyers seemed to be looking for early rock and classic rock on a CD. I remember talking to dealers and collectors and the future of record shows and what they may be like. Fast forward to the present and vinyl sales is going strong and CD sales has dropped.
And the best thing for dealers is the number of younger people attending record shows and buying vinyl. And not just buyers in their 20’s and 30’s but even teenagers attending the BRC and ARCA shows are looking for a certain record and having it announced over the PA system for the dealers to hear.
I say all that to lead into the following article sent to me by Tom Faison concerning the surge in vinyl pressings. It comes from a website called American Songwriter. It’s good news for the vinyl industry, dealers, collectors and record show productions. Hope you enjoy.
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Jack White, the guitar virtuoso and former front man for the White Stripes, owns and operates Third Man Records, which is both a music label and a vinyl record pressing plant. Given his extensive experience both as an artist and as a label head (and vinyl producer), White has taken to an open letter and video to give his fellow label owners some advice. Namely, White says, he thinks they should open their own vinyl pressings.
These days, there continue to be backlogs when it comes to pressings. Whether it’s the large demand for vinyl albums from artists like Adele or Taylor Swift or just the general backlog due to COVID-19 and other impediments, many in the music industry have complained about the vinyl shortage.
White wants labels to do something about this. In an open letter, he wrote:
At least once a week, without fail, someone will reach out asking me to help expedite their vinyl record manufacturing. It’s a natural thought… knowing that I own a pressing plant and have my own record label, “if anyone could help, it’s this guy!”
With industry-wide turnaround times for vinyl currently leaning towards the length of a human pregnancy, it’s obvious, in a world so contingent on being of-the-moment and timed just right (a single, an album, a tour etc.), these timelines are the killers of momentum, soul, artistic expression, and far too often, livelihoods.
I’ve done everything within my power to help. Third Man Records began a concentrated focus on vinyl in 2009 with hopes of exposing its wider potential to the farthest reaches of the music industry. In 2017 I furthered my commitment by opening Third Man Pressing… a plant which has always been open to anyone and everyone who walks in the door and wants to press a record, from bedroom hip hop artists to field recording documentarians. And in the last year, I’ve doubled down and invested in even more record presses, more employees to run them, and more shifts to try and accommodate the insane growing demand for vinyl product.
There are people who will say – isn’t this good for Third Man? More demand than you can handle? To which I say, even though Third Man benefits in the short term, in the long term it ultimately hurts everyone involved in the vinyl ecosystem given the bottlenecks and delays. Something needs to be done.
While the entirety of vinyl investment and framework in the past decade has originated from independent companies and investors, the bigger problems we now see require major solutions.
In this spirit, I turn to our collegial big brothers in the music world, Sony, Universal, and Warner, and politely implore them to help alleviate this unfortunate backlog and start dedicating resources to build pressing plants themselves.
To be clear, the issue is not big labels versus small labels, it’s not independent versus mainstream, it’s not even punk versus pop. The issue is, simply, we have ALL created an environment where the unprecedented demand for vinyl records cannot keep up with the rudimentary supply of them.
Across the globe, there are now a handful of NEW companies, building both automated and manual vinyl presses. It’s easier to purchase a vinyl press now than it has been in four decades. And with more ancillary innovators popping up every day helping advance every facet of the industry, this isn’t a difficult decision to make. It’s a no-brainer.
We’re all on the same team with the same goals. I truly believe that with a good faith investment in the infrastructure that got us here, we can continue on this upward trajectory and further inspire the worlds around us. Now is the time.
Thank you.
jack white III”
Soul Step Records quickly wrote on social media that they agree with White, writing, “We stand with Jack and the @thirdmanrecords crew. Do it for the Indie labels. We are, after all, the labels discovering the talent.”
HAVE YOU HEARD THESE?
I WONDER WHERE YOU ARE TONIGHT
ARTHUR ALEXANDER
(1963 DOT 16454)
MR. BANKER
LYNYRD SKYNYRD
(1973 FLIP OF ‘GIMME THREE STEPS’ – MCA 40158)
BRC RADIO
Check out our latest shows at birminghamrecord.com. Click on ‘RADIO’ and listen to some long-lost music and even some new sounds. There is a wide variety of music now that we have 3 hosts doing shows. Check out all our shows.
See ya,
Charlie