FEATURE:
New Order
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The Idea of a Modern-Day Record-Buying Club
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I am thinking about…
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A TV concept at the moment which would revolve around teenagers buying albums from a mail-order club in the 1980s. It is in synopsis stage, but the idea intrigued me. I have written about this before but, in a modern age, that idea seems old-fashioned. The concept was that people could get a dozen or so new albums for a small price. One of the downsides was that the quality of the album was not the same as you would get in a shop. There were catches and loopholes too, so things were not as simple and inexpensive as you thought. Physical music is still a big thing. Cassettes and CDs are being bought. I know there are vinyl subscription services, though I do not know whether there is an equivalent for compact discs and cassettes. Some people like to mix the formats. At a time when physical media is still demanded and formats like vinyl are surging, it would be an idea to reintroduce the idea of a music-buying service like the ones back in the 1980s and 1990s. Of course, this one would have to be more transparent than the ones we used to have! Where as you could get a bundle of albums for hardly anything back then, it would not be as feasible today. That said, there could be these deals where you could get new and older albums for less than you would retail. Not only would this stimulate physical formats’ growth and encourage people to listen to music the way we used to. It may also work out better for artists and mean that, at a time when streaming is huge, more people are encouraged to preserve music and have albums they can hand down to other people.
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I don’t think I was too involved with record-buying clubs when I was a child. My parents were, and it was a bit of a trick and trap. The price quoted for a dozen albums (or whatever deal there was) was misleading. A 2022 music club would be much simpler and more transparent. You would be able to get a mixture of vinyl, cassettes and CDs for a smaller price than you would otherwise. That does provoke the questions that, if you have this increase flow of physical demand, how will people play said albums? They can play vinyl easily, though many do not have anything to play CDs and cassettes on. It is a little limited in that sense but, as I have said and written about before, there could be a new line of players like the Sony Walkman and Discman. It would mean paying a bit to kit yourself out but, as many people of my age grew up listening to cassettes and CDs, there is a fear that people are not inheriting albums. There is that lack of communal spirit among younger people where albums are shared. The absence of tangibility and feel, I feel, is going to be a real issue! An album-buying club, whatever it would be called, is a way to encourage more album buying. I think that vinyl can be particularly expensive, so maybe finding a way of offering bundles but marking the price down would be more enticing. In any case, a music-buying club for today is something that I would be very interested in. It is a good way of, not only ensuring the demand for vinyl, cassettes and CDs increase. It is a good way also of getting eager young listeners invested in…
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VALUABLE physical music formats.