Following on from my previous piece, I thought I’d cover additional music options that aren’t necessarily vinyl.

Not vinyl, but…

Super Deluxe Editions (SDE)

SDE produces Blu-ray versions of albums. These typically consist of high-quality audio mixes of the albums, along with surround sound audio mixes for an immersive sound experience. While not marketed as limited editions specifically, they appear to be produced in limited quantities, with pre-order volumes dictating the number of copies to be produced.

If you have an artist you like, an established rock or indie act that is about to reissue a successful album or release a new title with high expectations, it’s worth checking in with SDE if Blu-ray audio is of interest. To date, releases have been made available for Paul McCartney, Tears for Fears, Kraftwerk, Suede, Bob Dylan, and others.

Subscriptions

Many artists, particularly those who are not multi-million-selling artists, are exploring the use of subscription models through services such as Patreon and Bandcamp. It is possible to buy such subscriptions as gifts.

The subscription’s benefits vary from artist to artist, but they usually involve additional releases not available elsewhere. Examples of this include Thea Gilmore (a new song every month) and Peter Gabriel (previously unreleased recordings, versions of songs during their development, etc.).

Books

Books seem to be a growing area, not just in the form of biographies, but also in narratives about music collections, album artwork, and so on.

Some of these books, while substantial volumes, are getting very expensive. We have a signed copy of Aubrey Powell’s Complete Hipgnosis Catalogue (the group responsible for the art on all of Pink Floyd’s albums) from a couple of years ago for less than £50. The second volume of Dust & Grooves, released this year, costs £100 for a standard copy.

Some indie record stores are expanding to cover music-related books, such as Resident Music.

Kit

Aside from buying music, another option is resources to help care for a vinyl collection. There are some nice kits available, which bundle vinyl brushes, cleaning solutions, and more. But such kits have limited benefit. To provide proper care, consider a suitable vinyl cleaning machine. Good ones start at a couple of hundred pounds and are best purchased through a hi-fi dealer, such as Audio-T or Sevenoaks Sound and Vision. They typically use ironised water to gently wash the vinyl. Don’t suggest tap or typical bottled water as these will contain small impurities that dry into the grooves – the very thing you’re trying to avoid.

Better still, to minimize the problems of dust and dirt, is to store records within antistatic inserts. Have you ever noticed how brand-new vinyl can be challenging to remove from the inner sleeve? That’s static at play, and it also attracts dust and dirt into the grooves. The static will build up as you slide the vinyl in and out of the inner sleeves. So, putting the vinyl into an antistatic sleeve first removes that problem. Some record companies provide the albums in a paper inner sleeve, which is lined with an anti-static layer – Godwana Records do this. However, the inner sleeve is typically plain, without any printing (i.e., printed lyrics, musician details, or artist commentary).

There are several brands available, but the best ones, which many people swear by, are Nagaoka RS-LP2 Anti-Static Record Sleeves, also referred to as Nagaoka No. 102. These usually come in packs of 50, and you can expect to pay £30 per pack.

If the records are not being stored in a nice soft-lined sturdy record case, then consider outer sleeves. This will help in several ways …

• Reduces dust and dirt getting into the sleeve in the first place.
• Reduces the potential for sleeve wear (corners and edges can show wear) as the records are slid in and out of shelves.
• Reducing sun bleaching of the sleeve is the shelving that gets exposed to direct sunlight.
• Replace the PVC packaging that records are shipped in, as it can cause the sleeve and record to tarnish over time due to plastic ‘off-gassing’ (a more detailed explanation can be found here). You want to replace that with Polyethylene (also known as polythene) sleeves.

These are pretty easy to source. Personally, I’ve dealt with Covers33 and found their products to be of good quality and well-priced. Remember, if you’re using sleeves for box sets, you’ll need larger sleeves, which are not always easy to obtain.

Artwork

Most people think of hanging original or limited, signed prints from artists or photographers, where the art was not created for a specific purpose, such as album sleeves. However, the art for album sleeves is no less of an artistic endeavour, and doesn’t have to be plastered with titles and other text. You can collect such art with limited-edition prints approved and signed by the artist and/or the musician. You can find this sort of thing at galleries such as Hypergallery or St Paul’s Gallery. If you go something like this, the picture needs to be framed appropriately and, importantly, has a certificate of authenticity.

Conclusion

These two posts started out as just sharing some brief thoughts, but have morphed into a bit of a monster. I hope you find them useful. As I wrote these two posts, a couple of pieces on HiFi Pig Magazine came to mind, which I thought were worth sharing as they do reflect aspects of the mind of vinyl music collectors:

• Completitists: Gotta Catch ‘Em All?
• Boxsets – Just Fancy Dust Collectors?