Is there a green solution to the vinyl record backlog? (https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62426472)
"Worldwide demand for vinyl is currently estimated at around 700 million records a year"
2022 Must be The Year Of The LP.
If it's a harder material that could be an improvement as long as the sound quality is equal or better. CDs have been polycarbonate since day-one. ...But IMO there's no point in improving something that can never match digital. And of course digital will always be more "green".
In the old days I read about 45s being made from "regrind". 45s did generally have poor quality and maybe that was one of the factors... Another factor may have been the loudness war. (In theory, higher speed should be capable of higher quality but the LPs almost always sounded better.)
Records are probably a tiny part of the PVC market, and probably an even smaller part of the PVC-plastic waste. PVC is recyclable and a lot of people collect records so most don't end-up in a landfill.
I'd be surprised if "stamping" is the bottleneck. That seems like the easiest part of the record production process, although it is where the volume has to come from.
Records are probably a tiny part of the PVC market,
Probably 0.00002% but don't let the facts get in the way of a good greenwashing marketing story ;D
45s did generally have poor quality
Not the same vinyl mix. Probably to be played 10,000 times in a jukebox.
One of the more interesting things I saw in that story was
"some music fans are having to wait around a year to receive their records."
Which kinda proves the stories that most of the LP buyers must never listen to them & are just collecting LP's
Which means 100s of millions of LP's are what? Art Work, Other.
Why not just print & sell the LP covers & Save the World from plastic :D
Which means 100s of millions of LP's are what? Art Work, Other.
Merchandise.
Which for touring major rock bands has been main source or revenue since who-knows-when.
When HD Vinyl bites the Dust....
Another Company comes along.
The patent-pending elasticStage vinyl production.
https://newatlas.com/technology/elasticstage-vinyl-production-platform/ (https://newatlas.com/technology/elasticstage-vinyl-production-platform/)
Their website
https://elasticstage.com (https://elasticstage.com)
“The future of Vinyl is here"
I wouldn't invest... My "business analysis" is that the real money is to be made in "stamping-out" records quickly in big volumes. This seems like a slow low-volume process and even if they can produce in large quantities their direct distribution model means they will be locked-out of the market for major artists that already have contracts with record companies.
They could be a manufacturing sub-contractor for the record labels but I doubt they can compete. If the process was economical and they could compete, they wouldn't be going-for the direct-distribution model. (I guess Mobile Fidelty has contracts to produce pre-existing recordings but that can't be easy to negotiate and it's also a small market.)
And of course, the market for records with better sound quality is VERY small because most people realize that analog records can never match digital. Some "vinylphiles" actually like the sound of vinyl so they might not like it if were possible to make the sound like (as good as) digital.
This sounds like a funny roundabout way to describe a direct-to-PVC disc cutting service, painted up to sound revolutionary somehow so they could fleece investors out of millions.