The Fascinating History of Record Collecting

A great article from my vinyl friends over at NYLVI.com

By Kevin Hawkins

Record Collecting has been around for about as long as recorded sound. In the beginning phonographs and the records, which were played (first wax cylinders and later flat shellac discs) were mostly reserved for the rich people. However, by 1920 the manufacturing process for both records and players was improved, which lead to a drop in the price for the players and purchasing music became a possibility for a broader range of people.

After the phonograph cylinder was given up the record became the uncontested medium for decades. The number of available recordings exploded and the number of companies, which pressed records also increased incredibly. The records, which were pressed, were 78 rpm, double-sided, ten-inch shellac discs, with about four minutes of recording time on each side.

While the recorded sound industry grew at an extreme high pace the growth eventually slowed down by the Great Depression and World War II, since countries were lacking raw materials. When World War II ended, the economy in these countries started to grow again and what happened was that Classical music (which accounted for a significant portion of the 78rpm releases) was slowly pushed into minority status by the influx of popular and new music.

An important point in the history of record collecting was when the 33 1/3 rpm, 12-inch LP record and the 45 rpm, 7-inch record became available on the market around 1949/1950. These formats provided advances in both storage and quality and these records were made of vinyl, which then came to replace shellac as manufacturing material. Also, groups of small record labels were formed with the beginning 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 45 rpm singles was important.

Record Collecting as a hobby most likely did not take shape as it is know today before until the 1960s. With the folk music boom in the late 1950s to early 1960s, there was suddenly a demand for archival material. In some countries record collectors started to search small and remote towns for older discs. In the beginning the most wanted items were pre-World War II shellac discs containing records, which mostly were what is considered the precursors to then current rock and roll and country styles. Later generations of record collectors found their passion in digging up obscure 45s for genres such as doo-wop, or LPs from the late 1960s garage rock and psychedelic genres.

In January 1964 the pop music scene changed forever with the arrival of The Beatles in the United States. Following The Beatles was a wave of thousands of bands inspired by their fresh; lively take on rock music with a sharp British sensibility, picked up guitars and many released records. Many of these acolytes released 45 rpm records in small batches to sell at local concerts and to their friends and families. Because of their relatively small pressings, these obscure local records became highly priced and valuable.

The collectors item with the most notoriety in record collecting is not a record at all, but merely an album cover. The Beatles themselves accidentally contributed what s probably the most well known and valuable collectors piece of the rock and roll era: The Butcher Cover. This title is an informal one for the cover of the Yesterday and Today album, which was released in 1967. Until this date LP releases in the US by The Beatles were different from those released released in the United Kingdom. The ones released in the US were shorter, had different songs, album titles and artwork.

Another Holy Grail of some collectors is Bob Dylans The Freewheelin Bob Dylan released in 1963, and has four songs that were deleted from subsequent pressings. For example the price of this record is known to be around $35,000 for the stereo version and $16,500 for the mono version, when in excellent condition.

One collectible record format is known as test pressing. A test pressing is what the name implied; 5-10 copies of a record pressed for the purpose of checking the mix or levels on a record, or to ensure that the die is cutting properly. Although the test pressing is naturally meant for the band, producer, pressing plant or record label to keep as reference, they are often placed in special packaging and given out to friends or devoted fans.


About the author

Kevin Hawkins writes about music, the music industry and vinyl records. To find out more about the history of record collecting and vinyl check out nylvi.com.

Nylvi is a social marketplace for record collectors.