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By William Livingstone Editor Livingstone (right) with Michael Koss, marketing vice president of Koss Corporation GIMME RECORDS LIKE almost everyone who cares for recorded music, I have been concerned about the plight of the record industry in the current recession. Some articles in the business press have been so gloomy that they made me wonder whether the government would eventually be asked to subsidize the major record companies. I am always pleased, therefore, by any sign of improving health in the industry that supplies new cassettes for my deck and new discs to keep my turntable turning. Such a sign came recently from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which announced that in February it had certified Gold Awards for six albums and five singles and Platinum Awards for five albums. This was twice the number of certifications for the same month in 1982. When things began to look bad for the record industry in the late Seven ties, it seemed to me that companies should trim their catalogs and bring out fewer records-and better ones. I was surprised that RCA, CBS, and London chose that moment to add new series of reissues, all well remastered on tape or disc and attractively priced. At the same time that the industry was supposedly depressed, Harmonia Mundi, a French classical label, founded a branch in Los Angeles that is now doing well in the U.S. market. Its catalog lists more than 1,500 titles. And PolyGram, apparently not satisfied with the share of the American market commanded by its subsidiaries, including Deutsche Grammophon, London, Philips, and Polydor, has set up PolyGram Special Imports. PSI brings in popular and classical records from Europe and Japan that are not re leased here. Its list exceeds 3,000 titles, and business is said to be brisk. A new three-year report on U.S. sales of records and prerecorded tapes has just been released by the RIAA covering the years 1979, 1980, and 1981. It tells us that men buy more than half the records sold here and most of the recordings of rock (63 percent), classical music (63 percent), and jazz (78 percent). Buyers between the ages of fifteen and nineteen account for only 17 percent of the market, and 50 percent of the records sold go to buyers between twenty and thirty-four. RIAA figures show that between 1979 and 1981 the number of records shipped to dealers dropped by 13 percent, but the retail value of total shipments dropped only a little--from $3.676 billion to $3.626 billion. Adjusted for inflation, however, this represents a decrease of about 9 percent. What a relief! Things could be better, to be sure, but at least at this rate record companies won't be shutting up shop right away. The advent of the digital Compact Disc should bring new excitement to the audio and record industries, and any upturns in the general state of the economy should beef up sales of records and equipment. When cassette players reached hi-fi quality, those of us who bought decks considered them as additions to our installations, not as a replacement for the turntable. Wonderful as the digital Compact Disc player is, for probably another decade it will be an additional signal source in an installation that includes a conventional turntable for long-playing analog records. With that in mind, this month we bring you some pointers on visual inspection of analog records from David Ranada. Alan Lofft has some advice on shopping for turntables, and Julian Hirsch will tell you how to evaluate turntable specs. Listening to CD's will make you very critical, and you're going to demand more from your LP's and record player. ---------------- Also see:
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