Record collecting
Five to 10 initial copies are often pressed for the purpose of checking the mix or levels on a record, or to ensure that the die is cutting properly.
Records that have been Mispressed [3] and have incorrect content or have Misprinted[4] labels or covers may be more valuable, especially if a very limited number was released to the public.
They are identified by the label, which typically takes the form of plain text listing the name of the recording and its associated credits, as well as markings specifying it as "Promotional", "Audition," "Demonstration" and/or "Not for Sale."
Because many commercial cassette releases use identical clear plastic and white print, promo copies are oftentimes distinguished solely by text on the J-card specifying them as such.
Music journalist Amanda Petrusich has reported that retrospective 78 collecting began in the 1940s, focusing on rare early Dixieland jazz recordings.
Further groups of small labels came into existence with the dawning of the rock and roll era in the early-to-middle 1950s, and the growth of a market among post-war teenagers with disposable income to spend on 45rpm singles.
Rock and roll was much less costly and more profitable to produce than the big band jazz and professional singer/song-craftsman music that it replaced in popularity.
Various important online library catalogs list copies of Burke's Register of Record Collectors, which existed from 1957 at the latest.
In the US, New York's Times Square store is widely acknowledged for feeding the doo-wop revival of the early sixties, attention focusing on them from 1959.
Record collectors fanned out in some countries, searching small towns, dusty barns and mountain cabins for older discs.
The Beatles themselves accidentally contributed what is probably one of the most well-known and valuable "collector's pieces" of the rock and roll era: "The Butcher Cover".
[8] Even in the 21st century, as music fans have often opted for digital downloads over physical releases (and indeed started to collect these in the same way as vinyl), certain contemporary bands have a following of record collectors.
For instance, in 1988, New York City hardcore band Judge attempted to record their debut Bringin' It Down at Chung King Studios.
The bad experience and low quality result left the band so disappointed that they scrapped the session and re-recorded the LP elsewhere.
For instance, fans of folk rock, psychedelia and other genres have become ever more interested in original short-run vinyl private pressings.
[12] As of 2011 many pressing plants have been reactivated and new releases in vinyl are appearing on an increasing basis, causing what many have called a revival of the format.
[14] In her account of the North American hip-hop crate diggers of the 1980s, media and culture theorist Elodie A. Roy writes, "As they trailed second-hand shops and car boot sales – depositories of unwanted capitalist surplus – diggers were bound to encounter realms of mainstream, mass-produced LP records now fallen out of grace and fashion.
"[15] Speaking of crate digging's broader role in hip hop culture, academic and ethnomusicologist Joseph G. Schloss says: [I]n addition to its practical value in providing the raw material or sample-based hip-hop, digging serves a number of other purposes such as manifesting ties to hip-hop deejaying tradition, 'paying dues', educating producers about various forms of music, and serving as a form of socialization between producers.
[15]While the practice of collecting in general was historically a bourgeoisie phenomenon tied to antiques and the fine arts, the North American hip-hop crate-diggers of the 1980s helped give rise to what material culture scholar Paul Martin calls the "popular collector" – generally interested in "obtainable, affordable and appealing" items and a consequence of mass production.
