Back to the Turntable, I've regressed back to before my youth

Quick Note: I've added myself as an Amazon Associate - so most of these links will refer to products on Amazon's website. I figured if anyone was getting any use out of my thoughts they might want to know where to start.

I'm not sure how I got here, but I'm now the owner of a restored turn table (or record player as I used to refer to them). I was just a little too young to own any real vinyl albums besides the occasional single or Star Wars adventure story. I remember my sister had a few, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and "Celebration" by Cool and the Gang. My first real vinyl record purchase came in college when I started buying old Led Zeppelin albums to hang on my wall as artwork. It's those albums that led me to eventually end up purchasing a record player a couple weeks ago.

I have always wanted to find a cheap record player to play some of those albums I still have lying around, and my wife had a couple as well. I regularly visit my local Goodwill store to find deals on various things, so I decided to start looking for a record player as well. A couple weeks ago I found one - a BIC 960 for $6 dollars. I had no idea if it would work, but I decided it was worth the money to try.

After I got it home I discovered it was missing a needle and needed some cleaning, but it worked! I looked up places to get it repaired and found a Mom and Pop store called JNS Phonograph Needles near the U-District on 65th (almost a block East of Roosevelt on 65th). The guy there told me I had done really well - he usually will sell the model I found for upwards of $250 dollars. So I went ahead and had it cleaned up and now I have a working record player (turn table) connected to my stereo.

I've been pretty happy with my purchase thus far: I've been playing those older albums I already owned and I even picked up a few new ones. I'm listening to "A Kind of Blue" right now with my BIC 960 hooked up to my Harman/Kardon AVR 310 (with a pre-amp, see notes). Kind of nice to play - no pause, rewind, just Miles Davis. There are a few shops in the area that sell new and used albums, and I noticed Amazon.com also has a vinyl section as well. Some albums in the local stores include a coupon to download the songs in mp3 off the internet, a great idea if you ask me.

My first new album purchases were the Blue Scholars "Bayani" and U2: The Joshua Tree (remastered edition). I'm hoping to get more classic hip-hop albums in the future, but they seem to be pretty expensive. The Joshua Tree purchase was kind of a mistake. It was a gift for my wife, who is a big U2 fan. I noticed that the re-mastered album came with some extra tracks, and thought buying the album would be a great way to get the original album and the extra tracks. However, I was mistaken - the extra tracks only come with the CD Version, not the vinyl. Fortunately she still liked having the album sans-extra tracks, but I still feel kind of jipped. Bono, if you're listening, please send me one vinyl version of your extra tracks :)

If you're thinking of getting a record player (turn table), here's a list of things to consider:

• Find out if you're going to use it. Vinyl really isn't cheaper than CD or mp3, and not as portable. Though some artists include a coupon to download the tracks if you buy their album on Vinyl (a great idea). Goodwill has some records, but most of that stuff is thoroughly searched through well before you get there.

• You need either a stereo with a phono (RCA) input jack, or you have to pick up a Turntable Pre-Amp. They are not too expensive, about $20-30 dollars. I have one for my stereo and it works just fine.

• If you grew up with CDs or mp3's (or it's been a while), keep in mind that you can't play an album straight through on vinyl. Each side of a record can only hold a few songs, and I don't know if anyone has ever invented a mechanism to physically flip a record for you (besides a jukebox). For example: if you think of a 13-track CD, on a record player (with 2 records - one stacked) expect to hear songs 1-3 (1st record), then 7-10 (2nd), then flip both over and hear 4-6 (1st), then 11-13 (2nd). The format lends itself to playing the entire album, but not in the order which you may be used to.

For those interested, here is a list of my albums on Vinyl:

• Led Zeppelin I
• Led Zeppelin IV
• Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti
• Led Zeppelin Presence
• Led Zeppelin In Through The Out Door
• Led Zeppelin Coda
• Led Zeppelin Kashmir (Live bootleg)
• The Beatles Please Please Me
• The Beatles Abey Road
• Miles Davis Kind of Blue
• Blue Scholars Bayani
• U2 The Joshua Tree

Rhapsody Online

I was browsing around the other day and ran into a small debate about whether subscription based music services have a market. After reading a few comments I found myself writing my own post, and then I decided to post part of that comment here.

I was against subscription based music for a long time, but eventually broke down and decided to try it out. My overall experience is good, some things I love, others no so much. By the way, this list is not weighted, even though I have more Cons I still think the Pros win.

Pros:

• Access to all the music I can handle, which opened me up to more music. For example, when I heard that Bob Dylan released a new album, I decided to listen to it. I would have never given that album another thought if I didn't have this service. It’s the same story for a bunch of other albums/artists that I just never had the desire to buy a CD to try out.

• TiVo - Rhapsody now works on TiVo. Navigating the music lists on a TiVo isn’t as easy as just playing a CD, but it has its advantages. I created a playlist for our Halloween party on my computer using Rhapsody, then hooked my TiVo to my stereo and played it for the party. We added some classic Halloween songs by the original artists and a few Top 40 songs that I would have never purchased otherwise. Despite his issues, I’d rather hear Thriller sung by Michael Jackson than some second-rate cover band.

• I like to try new music and I sit at a desk all day, so if I like an album I usually get sick of it after a couple weeks of listening to it every day. I'm always looking for something new, and I used to buy at least 4 CDs a month. It's much cheaper this way and I look at it as a $14 monthly trial period for all the albums I'm considering purchasing (Kanye West - great album, 50 Cent – not so much).

• You can share your playlists and other users can rate them. It’s nice since everyone using the service has access to the same songs.

• It has its own music player you can download, or you can just play through a simple web app (which works with Linux).

Cons:

• Great to use when I have a connection to the Internet, not so great otherwise. When I jump into my car I find myself wishing I had some of that new music I was listening to. Rhapsody Online does work with a couple portable players (Sansa), but I already have an iPod so I would have to make a commitment to switch players to get anymore out of the service. Not so much a knock on their service as it is just an inconvenience.

• You don't always get every song with each album; there are certain albums and songs that are not available. I can understand a certain artist or album (though it still annoys me), but sometimes it's just some random song on an album, or every other song on an album with no rhyme or reason. It can also change: one day half of Common’s album “Finding Forever” was no longer available. I already own the album, but it was just easier to listen through the service.

• Discovering new music is not as easy to do when you have so much available. Rhapsody needs some sort of service like Last.fm or Pandora. Maybe they should even consider buying or licensing Pandora’s technology.

• I still get a strange feeling about not owning the music, or if my network connection is down that I might not have access to anything.

• I haven't found a well-designed easy method of hooking the service up to my stereo. My wife still prefers to pop a CD into the player or just listen to her iPod.

• It's priced higher than Yahoo or Napster, but I liked the fact that it works with more platforms
  

I'm sure there are some other benefits and annoyances I'm forgetting, but hopefully you get the point. The subscription model can work for you - not if you've been listening to the same Led Zeppelin album for the past 20 years, but there is a market for it.

In my opinion, the anti-DRM movement doesn’t really apply to these services. Their whole model is to provide a large amount of music for a monthly fee. If I’m going to buy music online, I feel I can only trust mp3. However, if I’m renting it I’m only concerned with it working on the devices that I am using. Rhapsody even provides an integrated way to buy songs from their store in mp3 format.