"For the average [musician] in his bedroom, getting the sounds to 'tape' is more important than whether that tape is really tape or just zeros and ones," says Scott Soriano, a friend of mine from Sacramento who runs a used-book and -record store as well as an independent label whose roster includes a few Seattle bands. "Looking at it through a DIY lens, digital gives even more people the opportunity to be creative on 'tape,'" says Soriano. But as both he and Sub Pop direct sales associate Dean Whitmore point out, the democratizing effects of digital recording have also resulted in what they see as a glut of crappy music.
"I think the most important and yet overlooked thing about vinyl is the time restraints imposed by the medium," says Whitmore. Where CDs have room for upward of 80 minutes of music, a piece of vinyl holds about 45. All of art is about editing, and when you're making an LP, you're forced to make tougher decisions about what to keep and what to lose. If you're posting MP3s to your Web site, you can keep everything. How American.
michael doucett
Starbucks has become a double-tall player in the music industry with Hear Music and do-it-yourself CDs. Model foreground: Marie Rubins; background: Allison Fraser
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Although at the end of 2004, it looked like Quantegy, the Alabama company responsible for producing most of the audio tape used in reel-to-reel analog recordings, was going to shut down its factory, that hasn't actually happened—and besides, although the news caused a real spike in fear, no one really thought the closure would be enough to kill tape and analog for good. Cassette tapes, after all, are still mass-produced; those bedroom recording artists still have the four-track—that is, if they can be coaxed away from their laptops.
If anything is going to be phased out, CDs are in the most danger. "The record companies have been looking to replace the CD in the future, mostly so they can resell all the music they resold when they switched from vinyl to CDs. Downloads offer that opportunity, and at no manufacturing cost," says Soriano.
"Certainly from a job-security standpoint, the idea of reselling old music on new platforms sounds like a bonanza," says Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman. Then again, Poneman says, "Records look better, smell better, feel better, and, of course, often sound better—or at least different." In 2004, his label released 13 albums; only two of them were released on CD only—and one of those was a David Cross comedy release. "The surest benefit of all of the new devices and services is the exposure that they're providing all sorts of folks to all sorts of music."
Still, Kotowitz reports that the number of stores with room to warehouse vinyl is dwindling. "If you're pressing vinyl, you're relying pretty much solely on indie stores to make it worth your while," he says. Luckily Seattle's indie stores are ardent record fans. With Sonic Boom's new vinyl basement, Jive Time's second location on Capitol Hill, Easy Street's recent expansions, and the handful of really good used shops in town, around here, at least, vinyl isn't going anywhere. LAURA CASSIDY
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