New Turntable 6 Years Later

Looking at my old posts I saw that it's been 6 and 1/2 years since I purchased my turntable. And over 500 records later and it's still going strong. Here's the breakdown of how many albums I digitized since then:

2013: 10
2014: 44
2015: 13
2016: 192
2017: 164
2018: 113 (thus far)

As you can see, 2016 was the year I really started getting down to this meticulous work. I had been gathering albums from thrift stores and acquired quite a number before deciding to digitize them. At the moment I still have around 30-40 that need to be done.

This has significantly increased my music library and saved me tons of money. Sure, the quality is not the same as from a cd. But for the price it's well worth it. Well worth it indeed, considering a few of these thrift store finds I have sold for $25 each. Think about that; paying $1, sometimes $2, and reselling for $25. You could say in some cases I'm getting music absolutely free!

Since I'm not a record collector, rather a music collector, I have no desire in keeping most of these thrift store records. Thus I plan to sell these at a garage sale sometime next year. The plan was to hold this event this year but things didn't quite pan out properly. That includes the weather suddenly going from 80° to 50°.

I am starting to wonder if I should change the stylus soon. According to what I've read it should be replaced after 200 hours of play. Let's say each record is about 30 minutes. That means that after 400 records it's time for a new stylus. And as you can see from the above numbers I have played well over 500. That's not including the records I didn't digitize but just played to see if they were in good condition.

Some of the records I plan to keep because they are of my favorite artists. But most I have no interest in having. I am not a vinyl person. Once I record these things into mp3 files I will most likely never play them on a turntable again. I don't have emotional attachments to them because they're not from my childhood nor were they given to me as gifts nor are they being passed down to me. But some have nostalgic qualities and I would just like to keep them.

I will be unleashing some from my own long-time personal collection as well. A long time ago a neighbor threw out a few boxes full of records from the 1950s and 1960s. All sorts of stuff from The Beach Boys and The Beatles to Hawaiian music and traditional Mexican music. I don't know why anyone would just throw these things in the garbage. Especially The Beatles' record which was their first ever on Vee Jay records. And I know these neighbors used to hold garage sales of their own. I can't explain it. This trash treasure is where I got my first Beach Boys record from, even though I have never been a huge fan of theirs. Basically, the spoils were split up among other members of my household. I being the youngest had little say in what I wanted. Later though I would go on to inherit all of the ones which were taken, as the interest in vinyl of the other family members dwindled. So as of today I am the one with all the spoils! And now it's time for me to find a new home for them.

If records still continued to be only source of recorded music I would have run out of space years ago. Considering I now have about 500 of them along with about 2000 CDs and over 200 cassettes (before I started selling them), I don't know where I would store nearly 3000 vinyl records. Thank goodness for CDs!

A Growing Christmas Music Library

I have acquired some new additions to my Christmas music library in 2016. It's a mix of stuff I have found at secondhand stores and others bought and shared online. Here are some of my finds:

- The Soulful Strings - The Magic of Christmas
- The King Family Christmas
- Jack Jones Christmas (1969)
- Paul Revere & The Raiders - A Christmas Present...and Past
- Jingle Bell Jazz
- Andy Williams & The Williams Brothers Christmas
- Barry Manilow - Because It's Christmas
- The Blenders - Ring the Christmas Bells
- The Avalanches - Ski Surfin'
- Lynn Anderson - The Christmas Album

And I am still adding selections to my library. Already in 2017 I have added:

The Torero Band - Tijuana Christmas (1968)
The Hollyridge Strings - Christmas Favorites (1965)
Rotary Connection - Peace (1968)

I am also still indulging in holiday music.

I am by no means any kind of a record collector. I may be a music collector but I'm not necessarily interested in having the physical media on which the music came from. I have purchased over 200 LPs over the last several years at thrift stores. The main purpose was to record them into mp3 files. I'd say 90% of these records I have no interest in keeping. They are by no means rare or anything out of the ordinary. But I have found some that I plan to keep and some I will try to sell others on ebay. Most will be in crates at a future garage sale.

So I came across some pretty good stuff for this year. I do keep an eye out for holiday records at the stores I go to. But it's not an obsession with me.

I would love to come across something so rare and so good-sounding that no one has ever heard before. Better yet, I would love to make something like that. Making your own recording is really the only way to guarantee that no one else has a copy or has even heard it before. Since I do make my own music that is a real possibility for me. And I have decided that I will spend 2017 making Christmas & seasonal music, both original tunes and standards.