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When was the last commerical 45 pressed, and who recorded it?


Jeff Leites

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I was wondering about the big name performers.

 

 

There are still plenty of big name performers pressing 45s too. Since DJs tend to use vinyl, people who want to be played in dance clubs (R&B and hip hop artists) are often releasing their material on 45s. And plenty of rock artists too. Just a couple of years ago, 45s outsold CDs in the UK... don't know if that is still the case but the format is very much alive.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7750581.stm

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Also, you can often get 'audiophile quality' vinyl releases of many albums from specialty distributors in Japan and Europe.

 

But, just like some supposed high definition "HD" content released on audio DVDs, the 'audiophile' recordings released by license on vinyl are sometimes simply CD masters transferred over. http://www.itrax.com/Pages/ArticleDetails.php?aID=32

 

The wrinkles change, but the basic fabric of the music biz doesn't change much. One of the favored revenue streams is still tricking gullible consumers into buying yet another version of the same old content in a new, 'improved' format. There's a certain amusing quality to the spectacle of the record industry hyping cassette as an 'improvement' to vinyl, despite the fact that cassette was, of course, a highly degraded format. The jump to CD was, of course, an actual improvement, in virtually all ways to cassette and, arguably to vinyl LPs (that's a sop to the vinyl afficianadi; I understand they like the sound of vinyl -- and I don't argue that it does, indeed, have a particular sound; I just think that's proof of lack of fidelity). But then we saw material mastered for CDs transferred to DVD audio releases, often using the same frequency bandlimited masters used for the CDs, and now we see the industry rubbing its hands gleefully as it sells the same content back to consumers in grooved record format all over again.

 

Funny biz. Ha, ha.

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Nope. In fact, both LP and 45 manufacturing is up by quite a lot in the last 5-6 years compared to the 20 previous years.

 

 

"Quite a lot" means exactly that. That's not hyperbole. I can't remember the exact figures overall, but I do know that about 2-3 years ago, in one year alone, vinyl sales grew by 40%. As I keep writing here, many of the people buying vinyl are people in their late teens, 20s and early 30s.

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A vinyl record pressing company in Cleveland has been doing quite well recently. Here's something about the industry's numbers on units produced, from a NY Times story about them --

 

Last year, 2.8 million vinyl records were sold in the United States, according to the Nielsen Company, which tracks music sales through its SoundScan system. This year

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But the 7" singles with the big hole in the middle? I haven't seen a "new" one of those in a long, long time.

 

 

Oooohh ... I make those for me. But I don't count. I also disregard the press and numbers. Growth of 40% compared to years of flat doesn't exactly provide meaningful profit numbers for anyone. Plus, far more vinyl stores are STILL closing compared to new ones opening.

 

As far as the art of vinyl itself. a lot of slackers just submit wav file mixes and have those straight cut to vinyl. No planned out cutting engineer in the middle for mastering to the vinyl itself. All automated and not exactly in line with the artform. Naughty.. naughty !!

 

I DO think that the future is cool for anyone who owns ALL their stuff and provides ALL the budget to make ALL their formats (like me if I ever decide to actually release anything). Downloads are freebie throwaways in my mind... since ANYONE can do that.

 

On the other hand, create some physical ... well cut ... vinyl packages with liner notes etc.... price those at say $29.95 each (no more of the old century $12 albums in the new world).... run a few thousand copies.... and you've now got something that is PHYSICAL (for those who see the value in "holding" something... and a whole lot of people value that type of experience ) and GREAT profit margin. And LOTS of fun to make. Vinyl may become a pretty cool profit center in the wonky way music bizs progress. Downloads and Youtube will be freebieland.

 

Any of you guys visit the Secret Society of Lathe Trolls? It's pretty cool as a gearslutz of Latheland.

 

Back to the original question, I think the last 45rpm single I bought was "Stranger In Town" by Toto in dunno.. 1985? Even then, Tower's 45 section was pretty small.

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Back to the original question, I think the last 45rpm single I bought was "Stranger In Town" by Toto in dunno.. 1985? Even then, Tower's 45 section was pretty small.

 

 

I worked at Tower from about '87 to '96. The 7" single was still pretty dominant until about '89/'90. IIRC, we kept a big section of older 45s until about '92/'93 but they stopped making newer 7" singles a year or two before that. Or at least we stopped bringing them in. The younger kids---the target market for singles---were the first people out of the vinyl market. But there was still a small interest in older catalog titles--especially stuff that wasn't available in any other format.

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