once the streaming industry has complete control, despite competition between ‘players’, the cost of music will escalate. making the LP and CD even more attractive to some. the abysmal mp3 formats, which have become the defacto standard, destroying the magic of van gelder’s efforts and others. as long as archiving of master recordings are held both in analog and hi-bit depth,high sampling digital. there is hope. I am keeping my lps, making convenient digital copies….just in case ;)-. Iam not alone.born in 1950, I diid not start collecting until 1999 – prices were reasonable, unlike new lp prices in my youth – beyond my means.

A Coin, is also a cultural and an historic artifact from a certain period in human history, and it does provide a physical contact with that particular period in a similar way a first pressing does (but without the nice music of course!). I do prefer jazz records collecting though!

There is no doubt that the Lp market is making a comeback as succeeding generations begin to search for a more tactile connection to their music with more current formats (and even their retail counterparts) becoming increasingly obsolete in the age of “instant online gratification”. Not to mention the fact that there is now more competition than ever before for a very limited supply of original vinyl thanks to the internet opening up the market to an entire world of collectors in the last few decades.

Personally, I think there will always be a demand for our treasured Jazz ephemera to some degree but it will naturally recede with time. It is just the nature of our own evolution that what is fashionable or collectable today won’t necessarily be in the future. I suspect we will probably hit the high water mark in the next few decades as a new generation raised by technology is left with the stewardship (or burden) of dealing with our own collections, in the same way we have inherited our parents treasures and liquidate in favour of a clean basement and a college fund for the kids. For the most part, we have outgrown the stamp, coin and card collections of past generations, and found our own passions, as will future generations. That being said, there will always be those few “old souls” in the world (like us here in the JC) who still long for the days gone by, and want to re-connect with the music in a way that only the thrill of a first pressing can provide.

All i know, is even if mr SH and his acolytes at Music Matters records are valued 4 k in the future, i will never buy anything from these arrogant know it all.