Tuesday, October 03, 2000

I don't own too many rare records, but New Order's "Run 2" is one of them. Is it just me, or did the vinyl era produce far more rare, hard-to-find products than the CD era? Ten years from now, the CD era as we know it may well be over -- all new music will be downloaded from the internet and freely shared through programs like Napster. When those days come (sooner rather than later) will there be any such thing as a "rare" recording? With frightening ease, I have found songs through Napster that I failed to find with months, or even years of searching music stores. Thus, the concept of "rareness" comes down to analog vs digital. A rare, digital recording will become a non-entity, if it isn't already. Until every home has both a computer and a vinyl-pressing machine, vinyl will be the Taj Mahal of music collectibles.