Why records suck
A post for Robb
Say you want to listen to an amazing song by Gorillaz, the one they did with yer man from LCD Soundsystem and Andre 3000 from Outkast.
It was never released on an album. You want to listen to this song, you'll have to dig out the single. You're going to have to get up once the song has finished and put something else on.
Records typically come in two varieties: big 12-inch ones which are albums, small 7-inch ones which are singles. For tedious reasons this particular single was released on an in-between 10-inch size which makes it a pain to store.
Records also run at one of three speeds - 33rpm, 45rm, and 78rpm. Someone made a design choice not to write what speed this Gorillaz single plays anywhere on the artwork. You've got a one-in-three1 chance of putting the needle down and it playing correctly.
It might be crackly or something and require cleaning halfway through. It might also have got easily scratched.
But here's the kicker: unless you happened to be in a record shop in April 2012 when it was put on sale for about £9 for a single song, it's not been made available since. You're willing to pick one up on the secondary market? The cheapest copy is currently £239.20 plus shipping.
Alternatively...
...you could just click this link and listen to it on whatever device you have in your hand right now.
Probably more a 50/50 chance, as 78rpm hasn't been used much since the 1960s.↩