"Fundamentals of Vinyl Record Care" Webinar Sponsored By MusicWatch

On Wednesday April 19th I moderated a MusicWatch (https://musicwatchinc.com) sponsored webinar titled "Fundamentals of Vinyl Record Care". The panelists were Mark Mawhinney (Spinclean.com), Jeff Coates (Finesounds.com) and Charles Kirmuss (kirmussaudio.com). Each represented one of the three basic record cleaning methodologies: manual wet-vat, "velvet lip" vacuum and cavitation.

Communications Research's Marc Finer did the introductions and I took it from there. I was tasked with providing a brief history of records from the Edison cylinder to the 33 1/3 LP record and do it in a few minutes. I did the best I could do and then opened the discussion, with each panelist describing their record cleaning technology.

The webinar was aimed at record store owners, to try to get them to encourage their buyers, especially the young ones, to take good care of their records, and make them aware that if they do so, the records will outlive them and continue sounding great to whomever they pass them down to well into the future.

The webinar posts with the kind permission of MusicWatch. One interesting fact I discovered in my research: Edison manufactured cylinders until it shut down in 1929 but in the mid 1900 decade it made thick, flat discs called "Diamond Discs" that sold for around $1.50. A $1.50 back then in today's dollars is the equivalent of around $34.00!

Keep that in mind when you read stories claiming high prices today will kill the vinyl resurgence. No it won't because the cost is in line with prices throughout record production from the early 1900s through today.

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