its dead, jim.
i remember a few years ago when cdjs first came out, there were major ructions throughout the dnb scene, because that had always been firmly and passionately vinyl orientated. now cdjs are absolutely commonplace even in that scene, because nobody wants to pay £40 for a dubplate when they could pay 40p for a cd-r. Producers will aim a new tune to a dj and its played out on the other side of the planet the same evening. MP3 sales are taking hold (see beatport.com for example).
Sure, vinyl isnt gone -- far from it, its still the default medium there -- but if even that scene can end up being won over by cdjs what chance does psy have. Even when i first came to psy it seemed like cdjs were the norm - there was/is no/very little infrastructure set up for vinyl - so I really cant see this changing in psytrance.
I think the artists should be pleased, personally.
1. The piracy argument is completely invalid. mp3 rips of vinyl releases are on p2p the same day as the promos go out (or before), so the dishonest will still "soulseek, burn, play out" whether the legit release is vinyl format or digital.
2. Vinyl encourages a "1 tune" or "2 tune" culture. Many of my favourite dnb artists have still never released an album - just an endless stream of one-off singles... which are completely useless to anyone without decks. At least in psytrance with cds dominant, the tendency is towards artist albums and full-length compilations, which (hopefully) have a bit more substance to them than a single, whcih tends to be inherently disposable.
3. Artists get better financial reward from non-vinyl formats. First, obviously, vinyl is expensive to produce (as has already been noted). But it goes way beyond this - vinyl is big, and its heavy - which adds costs to storage and distribution at every single stage of the process. Think about it - a 12" is 5 or 6 quid, for 2 tunes. How much of that money goes toward simply shipping the heavy buggers to the shop?
And I wont even get started on the "vinyl sounds better" brigade. When the average club/party setup isnt made up of 15 year old needles, a mixer thats had 20 pints of beer spilt into it, wiring between the mixer and the amps being mostly solder, jam and string, a knackered amp (running in mono) being pushed well beyond its limits, and some battered cabs with dodgy tweeters -- then we can meaningfully start debating the "audiophile" merits of vinyl vs cd vs mp3.
someone lend be £800 in the meantime? lol
