Re: [ARSCLIST] Libraries disposing of records

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 05/01/07, Tom Fine wrote:
> At the risk of offending some on list, I have to offer a reality
> check, in line with Bob's posting. Guys, 78's are a real FRINGE/NICHE.

So are Sumerian clay tablets. Museums still preserve them.

> Anything with any remote chance of "mass market" is out on CD or
> iTunes. Most people -- myself included -- just don't like bad quality
> sound. Yes, there are some 78 reissues where they went back to metal
> parts and used tasteful, effective and sound-improving digital
> restoration, and it's great that modern life offers that wonderful
> music in a better-than-original mass-market format. But those shellac
> disks, they're just a novelty nowadays, in most but not all cases.
> Now, that said, of course I'll grab a pile from the curbside if the
> music is anything I'm remotely interested in because I like to play
> the Victrola for my nieces and nephews to show them "ye olde sound
> equipment". But I limit my 78 "collection" to one milk crate and I'd
> heave it first if I got in a space crunch. Edison cylinders -- I'm
> really glad UCSB has that archive online but I can't see how anyone
> would listen to that stuff for enjoyment. It sounds worse than a phone
> call over the Internet from Europe! But, back to my main point, if
> there's a profitable market for something, it finds its value and
> there apparently is no market for most 78's.
> 
> -- Tom Fine
> 
> PS -- regarding that comment about sending 78's to Germany, with that
> country's draconian disposal/recycling laws, are you sure you really
> want to take the dumpings of the attics and moldy basements of
> America? If the comment was serious, is there some sort of shellac
> recycling market developed over there?
> 

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx