No wonder the kids use phones

[chris_bates1974]

A (very) brief wander into an HMV yesterday, and their "special offer" on records is 2 for £40... That's 2 records for £40.

Bearing in mind that a family Spotify account is £15 per month, how on earth are we supposed to convince kids and young adults that what comes out of the bottom of their phones is rubbish, and that they really should buy a decent hifi if they actually like music?

Young people have a hard enough time as it is, but hifi really is becoming something that I genuinely think the vast majority of people simply can't afford at all.

 

[PeteVid]

If I recall correctly back in 1979 when I got my first Saturday job lager was about 75p a pint, an LP was about £2.99.

Now, don't go in pubs that often, but it's about £5 a pint now isn't it in London? That would make one LP £20..... so possibly about right.

 

[bandit pilot]

It's the investors that are the problem. Pushing up demand for records pushes up the price. It's a real shame too.
Many people, both financially and just out of principle will be priced out of this format.
I'm clueless about what's in my racks until someone else points it out. My avatar pic being a great case in point. Currently worth 10x what I paid for it. Doesn't make me happy. It'd be nice if we could all afford to enjoy what we like.

 

[rabski]

We've said this before. LPs seem roughly in line with other price rises, taking 1960s and 1970s prices as the baseline. This is especially the case as sales are obviously lower now then they were a few decades ago.

I think it's more a case of how people are going to afford anything, in view of the prices of basic necessities all going through the bloody roof.

 

[lazycat]

A (very) brief wander into an HMV yesterday, and their "special offer" on records is 2 for £40... That's 2 records for £40.

Bearing in mind that a family Spotify account is £15 per month, how on earth are we supposed to convince kids and young adults that what comes out of the bottom of their phones is rubbish, and that they really should buy a decent hifi if they actually like music?

Young people have a hard enough time as it is, but hifi really is becoming something that I genuinely think the vast majority of people simply can't afford at all.

That's the special offer. Albums are roughly £24-25 without. It is expensive now.

My latest Yello from Amazon was about £24.

Taking inflation into account they should be roughly £18 - BoE calc. using £5 at 1984 prices. But, of course, there are no mass production facilities unlike 40 yrs ago.

 

[DomT]

We've said this before. LPs seem roughly in line with other price rises, taking 1960s and 1970s prices as the baseline. This is especially the case as sales are obviously lower now then they were a few decades ago.

I think it's more a case of how people are going to afford anything, in view of the prices of basic necessities all going through the bloody roof.

Exactly! Just look at the prices of 845 valves for instance

 

[StingRay]

We've said this before. LPs seem roughly in line with other price rises, taking 1960s and 1970s prices as the baseline. This is especially the case as sales are obviously lower now then they were a few decades ago.

I think it's more a case of how people are going to afford anything, in view of the prices of basic necessities all going through the bloody roof.

They are roughly but cds are much cheaper, in the 90s cds were more expensive. A double lp can be £40 when the double cd of the same album, is only £5.99 in the same shop at the same time. But oil prices are up around 5x in the last 2 years so it's to be expected that vinyl prices are going up.
But then some youngsters don't even have anything to play lps on but they can put them on the wall.

 

[MVJ]

I think the main reason kids use their phone is convenience they have everything they need/want where ever they are....

 

[PeteVid]

But I agree £20 - £25 for an album does seem a lot of money. If pro-rata it is about the same as what they cost in the 60s. 70s and 80s why does it sound a lot? Maybe it's an age thing, although your average TV cost about £300 in the 80s and an average TV is about £300 now so some things really have come down. I think my Nad 3020 was £89 in 1980.

 

[chris_bates1974]

But I agree £20 - £25 for an album does seem a lot of money. If pro-rata it is about the same as what they cost in the 60s. 70s and 80s why does it sound a lot? Maybe it's an age thing, although your average TV cost about £300 in the 80s and an average TV is about £300 now so some things really have come down. I think my Nad 3020 was £89 in 1980.

I think you are right that age probably does have something to do with it. I remember my late grandad would tell me that he found it difficult over the years having to recalibrate what was an "acceptable" price for things. He really did struggle with prices towards the end of his life, blown away by stuff like a £20 t-shirt for instance.

Perhaps for many of us, it is also the (probably unfair) comparison with CDs which over time, only seem to have gotten cheaper.

 

[StingRay]

I think you are right that age probably does have something to do with it. I remember my late grandad would tell me that he found it difficult over the years having to recalibrate what was an "acceptable" price for things. He really did struggle with prices towards the end of his life, blown away by stuff like a £20 t-shirt for instance.

Perhaps for many of us, it is also the (probably unfair) comparison with CDs which over time, only seem to have gotten cheaper.

I have that problem sometimes, £5 for a pint of beer. Somethings seem very expensive such as underwear yet other items such as TVs and printers seem very cheap. TVs are probably same price now as 30 years ago. I just bought a new printer for £40, seems cheap. Yet a vest can be £18.

 

[bigfish786]

marketing of records is helping fuel the price rises too.
with limited edition colours or patterns. It all helps bump the price up, moving it from a consumed product to a collected item. (Just like their Pokémon, gotta catch ‘em all) .
Cds, now look like vinyl did to a lot of us in the late 80’s. A bit old and naff.

 

[StingRay]

marketing of records is helping fuel the price rises too.
with limited edition colours or patterns. It all helps bump the price up, moving it from a consumed product to a collected item. (Just like their Pokémon, gotta catch ‘em all) .
Cds, now look like vinyl did to a lot of us in the late 80’s. A bit old and naff.

Demand has gone up also, has caused problems as there is a shortage of manufacturing plants.

 

[PeteVid]

So rather than shell out £20 or more for an album kids stream music on their phones . The cheap Lo-Fi alternative years ago was to record it off the radio or your mates copy. Hi-Fi kit still sold well though.

 

[bigfish786]

So rather than shell out £20 or more for an album kids stream music on their phones . The cheap Lo-Fi alternative years ago was to record it off the radio or your mates copy. Hi-Fi kit still sold well though.

back in the 1980’s I bought my first hifi, Sony stack system, I used it to record the charts, then listened to it on my Walkman Kids eh?

 

[tuga]

A (very) brief wander into an HMV yesterday, and their "special offer" on records is 2 for £40...

What's a record?

 

[Klassik]

Perhaps for many of us, it is also the (probably unfair) comparison with CDs which over time, only seem to have gotten cheaper.

Klassik knows not about pop music CDs, but for classical music CDs, the prices have stayed pretty stable over the years at least here in the US. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, it seemed that classical CDs from major labels were usually priced around $12-$20 USD. Remarkably, even with inflation, the prices are around the same today. Given inflation, this means that the classical CDs are actually less today than in the past. Klassik will say that the prices for many classical CDs did increase here in the US shortly before the pandemic in early 2020. Classical CDs which normally were priced at around $16 are often now around $19-$21.

The biggest price increases seem to be on Naxos CDs which was considered to be a bargain label in the 1990s and their discs were often around $8 a CD then. Since then, they went up to $11, then $13, and now the new releases are sometimes around $15-$16 USD for a single disc album. Oddly enough, the major labels have a lot of their new CDs at around that same price. Naxos and Deutsche Grammophon both released new Florence Beatrice Price symphonies CDs at around the same time a couple months back and they were priced the same. Klassik is guessing that nobody would have guessed that Naxos and DG new release albums would be the same price back in the 1990s, but to be fair, the reputation of Naxos has increased significantly since the 1990s.

The best values for classical listeners today are the bargain box sets issued by the 3 big classical music firms and also the likes of Brilliant Classics. With those, one can find recordings of all Beethoven symphonies, for example, from well-known performances for less than ~$20 USD for all the CDs. Some of these sets even include the liner notes.

Actually, right now, the Barnes & Noble book/media store chain here in the US has a sale on their website for 30% off several classical CDs/SACDs and there are some good deals there. They have LSO SACDs priced as low as $10 USD. That's certainly not bad.

Streaming might still present better value, especially for those using free options such as YouTube, but those wanting to build/add to a CD library at home will find that the prices are still not out of hand for most people. If classical CDs were $30-$40 USD each like LPs are, well, that might be a different story. That said, it seems people like to frame LP album covers and put them on their Zoom/Microsoft Screams backdrops. CD album covers probably wouldn't work so well for that purpose.

 

[jumpmonkey]

how on earth are we supposed to convince kids and young adults that what comes out of the bottom of their phones is rubbish, and that they really should buy a decent hifi if they actually like music?

Hmm, I had a reasonable system when I was 18 and while I can’t exactly teleport back and compare, I’d eat my shoes if my phone and a decent pair of headphones didn’t sound a lot better than what I had 30 years ago. I don’t think streamed music from a phone is rubbish at all, and maybe that is the real problem when it comes to “kids” and hifi.

 

[JANDL100]

Bearing in mind that a family Spotify account is £15 per month, how on earth are we supposed to convince kids and young adults that what comes out of the bottom of their phones is rubbish, and that they really should buy a decent hifi if they actually like music?

Ah, but as jump monkey has just posted, the flaw in your argument is that "what comes out of the bottom of their phones" is not rubbish. At all.

I've been listening all day today to a very nice pair of Hifiman planar magnetic headphones directly from my phone.
Frankly, it sounds bloody marvellous.

 

[triumph]

Kids / Youths spend up to £1000 on a phone or £50/60 per month on a contract
20quid for a record not bad value