This generation…they claim to have reinvented the bus, the train, the bodega, and now, the 45 rpm record?
On Monday (Aug. 4), a small but mighty new physical music format arrived: Tiny Vinyl. Measuring at just four inches in size, Tiny Vinyl is a playable record that can hold four minutes of audio per side.
The disc, according to a press release, aims to “[bridge] the gap between modern and traditional to offer a new collectible for artists to share with fans that easily fits in your pocket.”
OK, there are differences. This thing is played at 33rpm, not 45rpm, and is smaller than the old format, which was a 7 inch disk, but I don’t see any advantage. It doesn’t matter that it fits in your pocket — in order to listen to it you also need a turntable and a set of speakers. They also cost $15 each. It’s a gimmicky promotional toy, not a serious means of distributing music. People are used to loading up thousands of MP3s on their phones and being able to play them through ear buds, you’d have to be a serious hipster to think that unlimbering a turntable and a pair of portable speakers so you can listen to singles at the coffeeshop is “cool”.
As someone who buys vinyl records, hell no. This isn’t something anyone asked for or needs, and strikes me as being more shrinkflation than anything else.
I see this I just think of trading cards. Nothing sinister or hipster, just fandom. The people who started the company have to tell a story to get started, but, I doubt any of them actually expect these ever to be played.
I wonder if anyone who buys this stuff will actually be willing and able to play the records…you know, to see if anything is actually recorded on them…and how it sounds…
i cant wait for 8 tracks and rotary cell phones.
Boomer technology? The first record player was mass produced in 1895.
Robbo@4: One metal musician actually declared his latest work would be released on 8 track, as even compact cassette had become to mainstream recently – that was on April 1st though ;-)
R2R tapes at least are still available and, well, no idea who would spend that amount of money on that stuff:
https://store.acousticsounds.com/cat/397/Reel_to_Reel
@John Watts: The 45 rpm single was introduced in the 1940s. It gets no more boomer than that.
“Guess I’ll have to buy the ‘White Album’ again”
While these tiny records aren’t something anyone asked for or needs, one of the big reasons for the resurgence of vinyl is that people are learning just how important physical media is in order to be able to always access the music you bought and paid for. Yes, they can get damaged, but licenses aren’t going to expire and a turntable can’t be bricked because the manufacturer wants you to buy the latest model.
I never got rid of my Akai reel to reel, it’s under the table behind me that has the amp, CD player and record player on top. I have a couple of good long party tapes I should pull out and give a play.
Wake me up when they figure out how to fit Dark Side Of The Moon on this new format, so I can add it to my collection.
They will also sound lousy. The speed that the needle moves along in the groove affects fidelity. At the outer edge of a 12 in LP the speed is 18 in/s. On a 4-in disc it’s 6 in/s. And an automatic turntable won’t play them, because it will think it’s at the end of a normal record and send the tone arm back to its rest and shut off.
Pfft! Real audiophiles listen to wax cylinders!
I still have a landline with an AT&T push button phone that I bought in 1972.
The phone still works.
The sound quality and ease of use is far superior to my Android cell phone.
I use it often and much prefer it to my cell phone, although to be sure, it isn’t portable.
Real audiophiles go to live music concerts and festivals.
My schedule is light this summer but I’ve been to a few outdoor rock concerts so far.
I’m always amazed at the ‘cool, new inventions’ imbeciles reinvent or tweak just to be ‘influencers’. Just because you can ‘invent’ something doesn’t mean you should foist it on the drooling masses. I still have 78rpm records from ~1903 and 4-track tape cartridges. But, they are only interesting for historical reasons. They are not audiophile quality.
@14 raven wrote: I still have a landline with an AT&T push button phone tht I bought in 1972. The phone still works. The sound quality and ease of use is far superior to my Android cell phone.
I reply: I agree. We still use rotary and DTMF phones on landlines.
My mom had a bunch of US pop music on 78s (Danny Kaye, WW-II songs), as well as Red Army songs from 1948. #Bone4Tuna finding a turntable that plays those things…
Bringing vinyl records back is bullshit. Any recorded sound is distorted in some way. If you prefer the “warmth” of the noise on a vinyl recording and vacuum tubes, great. Special carrying cases for lugging around your 12″ vinyl records, is capitalism at its finest.
I’m old enough to remember when stereo recording was introduced commercially. THAT sound was a revelation to me, when I first heard it on good speakers.
But I hope CDs make a comeback. I got a lot of them, and they’re just fine.
I used to relentlessly mock my good friend for his extensive vinyl collection back in the mid 2000s. He had some serious R&B/soul stuff I’m not even remotely familiar with. I did learn about the Ohio Players from him though and the rollercoaster song the Chili Peppers covered. Anyway we would go to the flea market together and he would buy old vinyl for a couple bucks a pop. Fast forward to the mid to late 2010s and I recall Books a Million selling trendy new vinyl for 20-30 bucks a pop. No thanks.
I am happy with my CDs and Youtube.
I will say this seemed kinda nifty:
I will also say the kids these days with their digital music collections and specialized software seem to be kinda cheating as “DJs” compared to old school DJs who actually mixed on wheels of steel (turntables) with basic boards, samplers, and drum machines like the 808. That took actual skill (craft work). They also did megamixes on reel to reels (multitrack?). Thanks to Biz Markie the sampling stuff kinda went by the wayside.
So yeah I can respect 12” vinyl still in certain contexts.
Ooh, more plastic pollution. Sounds like more marketing junk
I have a lot of vinyl in my collection, but most of it was purchased back in the 90s and aughts, when you could get 2 for a dollar at any decent thrift store. Since they’ve made a comeback, I rarely buy any anymore because (a) they’re too expensive now and (b) I actually prefer CDs anyway.
Wait, what?
@14 raven
False. Turn in your “real audiophile” card.
Your landline is limited to narrowband voice, 4 kHz in width including the guard bands. Any smartphone’s sound quality is far superior. It’s no contest.
Heh. What a silly thing to claim, beholder.
The sound quality is based on the speakers (the actual hardware that makes noise), not the bandwidth of a signal.
Not like people play music from an actual cell phone, is it?
(You know how you stupidly claim you imagine StevoR is stupid, whereas the opposite is true? Like that)
I think that revival of microgroove records is a liking for the colouration that they add. Many people grew up hearing most of their music via this medium and regard it as a ‘normal’ part of the music and I’d not be surprised if at concerts where amplification is used the performers want a ‘vinyl’ sound. Robert von Bahr of BIS has expressed surprise at this movement; pointing out that music is digitally recorded before being cut for microgroove issue. I bought an early Philips CD player in December 1983 and have never regretted the change, but then Classical music is an acoustic form. Are they going to revive Direct to Disc recording a la Sheffield Labs? I suspect that Teldec’s direct metal mastering is not favoured as it reduced the colouration.
By the way: The ‘interconnect’ business is still going.https://www.nordost.com/odin-supreme-reference.php £70,000 for a 7 metre XLR-XLR for example!
Any smartphone’s sound quality is far superior. It’s no contest.
beholder, have you ever used a cell-phone, or spoken with someone who was using one? I’ve done both, and trust me, cell-phone sound quality is nowhere near “far superior.” Voices can be much harder to understand, and it doesn’t take much background noise to make voices just plain impossible to understand. Sometimes I’ve had to tell a caller “I can’t understand you, just text me instead!”
@23 beholder wrote: Your landline is limited to narrowband voice, 4 kHz in width including the guard bands. Any smartphone’s sound quality is far superior. It’s no contest.
I reply: I agree and support @26 John Morales, @14 Raven and @27 Raging Bee. in that bandwidth (frequency response range) is NOT the main criteria for sound quality when it comes to voice communications. I have heard both landline phones and smartphones and most of the smartphones have disrupting background noise, echoes, and compression artifacts that make the voice unintelligible. One member of our organization is an audio engineer and tech and they support this supposition that ‘landline’ analog phones emphasis on vocal frequencies is a plus.