Carolina Soul Records should ring a bell with anyone seriously into collecting vinyl as it is one the largest record sellers both in the third dimension as well as online along with having cultivated its own radio show and a far reaching social media presence.
Vinyl Age sheds light on how the record collecting game has changed since the advent of the internet and elaborates on how it also has revolutionized pricing and the way music is being enjoyed. With Carolina Soul’s Marketing Guru Max Brzezinski at the helm, the tome does not merely stop at the obvious but draws most interesting conclusions to political implications, societal and capitalist impacts and related phenomena.
Given Max Brzezinski’s academic background, i.e. him holding a PhD in English Modernism, his thorough research should not come as a surprise.
In a borderline academic manner Brzezinski derives that while it has never been easier to get a hold of records, thoroughly understanding them has proportionally become harder for the isolated, removed collector. Brzezinski substantiates his treatises with graphs, charts and relevant data, some of which could not come closer from the source as it is based on the evaluation from Carolina Soul Records’ vault.
Needless to say, the book also has all the trivia and essentials for beginners regarding the science of record grading, manoeuvring platforms like Discogs and Ebay, et cetera, and it is being done in a way that even luminaries are bound to have ah-ha moments.
Nicely illustrated, this is a post-internet recommendation for anyone getting kicks out of experiencing music in an analogue and tactile manner.
