Comments on: Physical Media Is Booming but Are $125 Vinyl Records and $300 Tapes Getting Ridiculous?

By: Steven

Steven — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 20:00:53 +0000

In reply to Steven.

A quick follow up.
The tape arrived today and when I checked the Rhino website did not see a “sold out” or “no longer available” mention on the purchase page.
$299.98 for a 15 ips copy (genuine 2nd generation) of the master tape, while not inexpensive, remains an exceptional value.

By: Steven

Steven — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 21:43:05 +0000

Per the materials cost and labor time, I consider $125 for “any” vinyl record to be an all too common example of greed according to the accepted motto: “what the market will bear.”
$300 for a 15 ips tape per the materials and labor time, however, I consider expensive, albeit a good value.
And upon reading that Court and Spark was released on tape, I immediately went to Rhino’s website and placed an order.
An email was sent acknowledging the order was placed and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the next one will include a tracking number, instead of an apology that the item is no longer available.
I’ve listened to non-physical digital playback through so-called price no object, state of the art systems; happily returning to disc playback through a high quality transport and DAC.
The exception would be listening to MA Recordings directly from Todd’s recorder: pure magic.
And while digital discs can and often do reach my heart and connect me to the music, the analog domain continues to connect me more deeply.
Many, of course, have a different experience.

By: Ian White

Ian White — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 14:24:26 +0000

In reply to Fielding Gray.

Fielding,

Not enough when it comes to vinyl playback and certainly even less in terms of reel-to-reel in the overall population. I suspect that most of the people buying the Joni have invested in good machines or already had them. I’m friends with a few people on the business end of the R2R market and their customer base is very experienced and educated when it comes to open-reel analog playback.

But your overall point stands.

And I have a very long list of shitty sounding ’80s records that need a better mastering job.

By: Fielding Gray

Fielding Gray — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 14:13:27 +0000

How many people buying these pricey editions have a level of high-end equipment that really reproduce exactly what’s in the grooves? Granted a difference can be noted on lesser systems that probably the majority of purchasers own, but probably due to some remastering tweaks that will sound more impressive on such systems. Sure they’re cleaner sounding but what else has been tweaked? Some of these auditioned on six-figure systems are amazing but some, while cleaner sounding, are somehow less enjoyable and more antiseptic perhaps than the original releases. At the time of the original releases, we had some great engineers who used and even put together their own equipment to get the best sound into the grooves, fully versant with vinyl and groove limitations. There are some great remastering people working today too and my wish is that some of the companies putting out the profitable releases would be more discerning and work their magic on records that didn’t sound that great when originally released. Since it all goes through a digital stage, there are so many digital resources around to use and reincarnate much-loved music. I wonder how many of the people who bought that Joni tape have 1/2 machines!

By: Ian White

Ian White — Mon, 12 Oct 2026 09:44:25 +0000

In reply to Dann.

Dann,

There are a bundle of new Blu-ray audio titles coming in Q4 that might be worth checking out. Queen, Talking Heads, Billy Joel, Amy Winehouse, etc…

By: ORT

ORT — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 21:10:02 +0000

As my belove, late mother taught me decades ago…

“Sometimes my son, price is the soul cost”. Yup. I won’t even sell my soul to buy a piece of it back. Over-charging people for memories is a crime against said memories.

ORTacles of Thebes

By: Dann

Dann — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 21:00:01 +0000

The only physical media I am hot on is Blu-ray audio. It is a best buy IMO.

By: Ian White

Ian White — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 18:06:37 +0000

In reply to Catherine Lugg.

Catherine,

I agree that it’s all just “stuff” (minus books which I’d run into my burning home to save…maybe only a few), but we all worked hard for it. One of my children (when they were in a bad place) took and sold 300 of my records (and not the bad ones) for cash so her and the ex-boyfriend (I might have dug a hole in PA…but I won’t say where) could have money for bad things, so I’m a tad sensitive about it. I’ve been buying music/books/movies since I was old enough to figure out which pocket to store my allowance and how to take the bus in Toronto downtown to spend it all at Sam the Record Man.

My issues with streaming are that it’s renting and what happens if they go out of business? I’ve spent at least $3,000 on the various music platforms and to lose 3,000+ saved albums would make me write a strongly worded email to some corporate hack who wouldn’t care.

What happens if the internet goes down? Aside from having to go outside, talk to people, and not be a jerk behind a screen anymore? At least you will have music, books, and movies to enjoy…assuming the rioting only lasts a few days (can you imagine people today not having access to their social media and streaming accounts) and they don’t come for the people hoarding all of the music/books/movies.

🙂

By: Catherine Lugg

Catherine Lugg — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 16:12:09 +0000

I’m becoming the resident contrarian. I’m glad that people remain interested in physical media. That said, I’m at the age and condition of life that it’s all just “stuff.” For me, it’s akin to collecting art glass. If you handle it, you can drop it. Additionally, physical media degrades with every play and age (CD rot is a thing, which I sadly discovered). So, I’m perfectly fine “renting” my audio collection. And yeah, I still have my reel to reels of my own recitals….somewhere.

By: Ian White

Ian White — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 13:11:40 +0000

In reply to E. Elsworth.

I actually went back and added something in regard to your point and it links back to another article I wrote this summer about a customer losing access to film they purchased years ago on a platform and the legal ramifications.