The Piccadilly Records newsletter is always worth a read every Monday morning as Philippa and the team tell you not only what has arrived in the stock room, but the ongoing fortunes of The Manchester Stingers WFC and suggestions for a top night out in Manchester and so forth. Given the rate at which certain limited issues sell out these days, you’d be advised to read it as soon as it comes out, and by popular demand you’ll now see a handy summary of ‘staff picks’ and find out what’s new in each department.
I hope Philippa won’t mind us reproducing her introduction to todays newsletter which makes a rather salient point about owning a large collection of ‘Physical Product’ as opposed to a hard drive full of mp3s of dubious origin. As she points out, the difference is that the latter has some value, and given that most releases are now in fairly limited quantities now is the time to start looking for the collectables of the future.
“As a vinyl junkie who has been buying wax since the late 70s, I now have a whole room given over to flooor-to-ceiling shelves of records. I sleep in the smaller back bedroom while my records get the comfort of the master bedroom up front. Meanwhile my friends have 20,000 tracks on something smaller than a fag packet. I spent years hauling boxes of records up and down nightclub stairs, while today’s DJs skip along with tiny shoulder bags of downloaded tracks on burnt CDs.
Sometimes I’ve felt like the person who went with Betamax while everyone else chose VHS. But not anymore, because I have now discovered Discogs. Working here for 24 years has meant that sometimes I’ve got a bit over enthusiastic in my purchases, ending up with a mix of cherished gems on the one hand and un-opened, still sealed, mint condition shelf fillers on the other. I might have a a whole room full of records, but it’s a room full of records that’s now making me money. So here’s two fingers to the downloaders – your collection of tracks is worth zilch. And it doesn’t look as good. And it doesn’t sound as good. And it doesn’t exist outside your iPod. Record collections (on vinyl or CD) rule!
So fellow record collectors, check out this week’s list of new music – there’s some really special releases on it, from the Soft Pack 45 to the new Gil Scott-Heron LP, from the latest batch of rhythm & blues sevens to the bang up to date UK garage-dubstep-techno crossover CD compilation from Fabric Records. Add to those future gems right now.”
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