Print - content hand off

For this project, our content and research is handed off to another person in the class for them to design. I was paired with Mike who has come up with a concept about vinyl records, specifically a book about how to care for the records.

Brief title/ working title:
Record Maintenance (may change with time)

purpose of publication: 
An audiophiles guide to maintaining the quality of your records. Looking at the different styles of vinyl, the equipment you can use, and what not to do.

Target reader/ audience:
Middle aged audiophiles, disposable income, bourgeois

Genre:
guidebook

competition: 

A Beginners Guide to Vinyl: How to Build, Maintain, and experience a music collection in analog – Jenna Miles

Dust & Grooves: Adventures in Record Collecting - Eilon Paz

positioning (USP, points of sale etc)

Corporate bookstores as well as independent

High quality printed book, very few readily available (USP)

price point
£15 - £20

Along with the brief he sent me a text copy containing all his content along with photos.


Despite being one of the most durable physical music formats around, neglect your records and you risk introducing surface noise, scratches, even warping. This book outlines how to store a record collection properly. For many years now, the top issue brought up by the anti-vinyl brigade is the noise that vinyl makes when it is playing. The snap, crackle, pops, the background hiss, the clicks and more. People who dislike vinyl point their fingers at this issue as if its a design flaw. It’s also an old chestnut that ignores many factors which largely result from a lack of basic cleaning and proper storage. If you don’t store your vinyl properly, then it will affect playback sound quality very quickly. Its easy to prove the point yourself. Just buy yourself a clean, new vinyl record, hear the silence from the first few plays then leave the record, out of its sleeve, open to the elements, pick it up with dirty fingers, use it as a frisbee and a beer mat and, well blow me down, you’ve got yourself one noisy record. It’s not rocket science, is it? That’s not all, of course, if you don’t store your records properly, you also open up the possibility of excessive wear, warping and abrasion. The record itself is not the only target. Part of the joy of buying vinyl is the sleeve, often holding beautiful artwork plus readable and informative sleeve notes. Without correct storage, your sleeves can be bent, creased, affected by scuffing, water damaged and more. You pay a lot of money for a new piece of vinyl. Take care of it and it will reward you with a lifetime of pleasurable use

Coloured records have been around for a while but there are a few differences between these and a regular black record. As far as reselling records, if there is a coloured pressing, these sell for more and are usually seen as being more rare (in some cases a colour edition has sold for more than first pressings. Additionally there is (supposedly) a sound quality difference.
General consensus states that black vinyl will sound better over time and will last longer. This is due to the carbon that is added to the PVC that is then added to the wax. As far as the sound quality compared, in most cases black records sound better due to higher quality materials but in some cases people have said that white vinyl can be just as good if not better.
Another thing to take into consideration is that picture discs have to be made by hand, and while they are technically made from the same pucks as a regular record but is surrounded by paper (that holds the image) and then a thin sheet of clear plastic surrounds that which actually holds the pressing. And the reason picture discs can be more expensive is that each disc has to be made by hand and can't be manufactured at a huge rate.
While there are lots of factors to consider when looking at different colour vinyl records, there is no way to be certain of sound quality and each different pressing plant is different and there is always a chance you could get a slightly worse quality vinyl with them being such an analogue product.

_Keep the whole album in a protective sleeve so that the sleeve doesn't drag the value of the record down.
_always ask to listen to a second hand record through headphones in store, this will help you determine the quality and whether it’s actually worth buying.
_usually if a record is in a bad state you can tell by looking at the inner circle at the end of a side to see if the grooves have been worn by leaving the needle on the record after a side is done.
_don't use a dry cloth to wipe the record as this creates static which attracts more dust, very slightly damp is better
_use distilled water if possible but non distilled won’t be the end of the world
_if a record is actually damaged, it's unlikely you can fix it. If you can feel a scratch on the surface then it's beyond repair.
_when wiping the record or when using a brush, don't apply pressure. (The aim of using these isn't to clean the grooves, but instead get anything off the top)
_don't touch ever the grooves.