[Peek-a-boo]

Hi, this is the first thread I have started on this forum. I come from a Hip Hop background so I love digging, but I buy new records online daily & pretty much every style of music covered!

I always thought it was really frowned upon to buy reissues, but labels like Death Waltz do it properly & give an innovative re-take rather than just repackaging something old. This is what draws me to the label.

Do people still care to have the original pressing or is it not so much of a thing anymore? It's quite nice to get a clean new pressing sometimes.

I was curious to know, (if anyone is clued up), what kind of market share do reissues hold within the vinyl market? The shops seem completely saturated with them at the moment. Blogs such as Pitchfork seem to have lost some of their interest in new music & are really pushing reissues. Are we having a bad year for new music, I'm not so sure....

Something else I've always been interested to ask collectors. Why are we all so drawn to coloured vinyl when (by all accounts) the sound quality is supposed to be worse?

I'd be interested to know peoples opinions on any of the points I've raised.

Cheers!

[Peek-a-boo]

If it sounds like this is some kind of marketing excercise it really isn't, I'm just nerdy & interested!

[ghostfires]

I really don't care about digging for originals anymore. Reissues typically are great...better artwork, sometimes better sound quality, new/unreleased tracks...why not go for a cheaper (seeing as most originals now have been found and are marked way high due to the vinyl resurge), and in most cases a better product?

[scottyboy71]

This is an interesting point. I think the whole crate digging culture respects the original pressings a lot more and there's certainly greater kudos in having an o.g. My resurgence of interest in vinyl was hugely driven by a love of hip-hop and funk and soul. I personally never really search out an original press, but I'm really chuffed with myself if I stumble across one.
To me the coloured vinyl thing is a kick against the disposable mp3 culture. It's a thing of beauty that can't hold a candle to a hard drive packed with mp3s. I also think the quality of vinyl in General is far higher these days and frankly I'm not having a problem with the coloured vinyl I've been picking up.

[djinnocide]

It's nice to come across an original pressing of something if it's easily available (not too expensive or difficult to obtain), but if a nice reissue has been released and is more easily available then I'll choose that every time.

[Re-animated Cat]

Originals can be cool artefacts in themselves. But so long as they aren't stupidly priced.

Also I think it's too broad an assumption to say that all reissues have better sound quality. A lot of reissues these days are pressed at a certain Czech plant that has a very dubious reputation for quality control. Quality of reissues varies wildly. Major labels in particular have a habit of pressing things as cheaply as possible and then bumping up the retail price disproportionately.

[freshoj]

I still favor originals to reissues (within reason).

a big part of it for me is the physical age of the thing (and the history that goes along with it). For example, I love that I have some of my Dad's early rock 'n' roll LPs with his 14 year old handwritten name in the top corner. He took great care of them and the records that he bought new in the mid-1950s sound as good today as they did then.

For these kinds of reasons, I even like the records to have a little character (someone's play counts, or inscriptions, etc).

I love the idea that some hep cat walked into a record shop and plunked down for a small-run jazz LP in 1967, and it somehow survived and found its' way to me where it is still enjoyed.

By comparison, the CDs I bought in High School are starting to deteriorate despite being well cared for. Perfect sound forever? ha.