Photo: City Nomads
As someone who is for the most part clueless about vinyl records, the first place I thought of visiting was a record shop. I picked Hear Records - and I won't lie - solely because it had the most 'Likes' on Facebook. Imagine my surprise when owner Nick Tan told me that he had only recently opened the shop in March 2013... which goes to show how popular this medium has been recently.
4 November 2013, 2.00pm
1. What started your interest in vinyl?
You see the thing is, for vinyls, CDs and mp3, it's still the music that matters. For people my age, there were no CDs or mp3s then. You either had cassettes or vinyls. So my passion started out in music, and not the format itself. But if you ask me, there is a special thing to cassettes and vinyls that surpass - I mean if you're into music - things that CDs and mp3s cannot give you. For example better sound, and the visual art itself. But most importantly, the sense of owning something. So things that you can just hold on to… I own something, it's a work of love. Whereas for CDs, the booklet is smaller and somehow there is a 'cold' factor to it. Vinyl actually gives you a better precision of the album. For vinyls, the 50s, 60s, 70s albums are great albums. For example, Pink Floyd. People are still buying their album. But if you think about it, why? Legacies. You see, the thing about vinyl is that you play from side 1 from side 2, side A first song to side B fifth song… so you actually listen to the whole album. For Pink Floyd, they actually only had 2 hits in their lifetime. And now, any amateur CD band can have more hits than that. But the thing about the vinyl format is that they force you to listen to everything. So you actually listen to everything. So actually for some of the tracks, on the 1st listen, you might think "Look, it's not a hit song." But actually when you listen more, it actually grows on you and you realize that they're good songs after all. And there's not really a thing called 'fillers'. But now, with CD and mp3 format, you have the ease of actually selecting one song. You don't actually listen to everything. And sometimes, you only listen to the hit song and actually forgo everything else. You don't give the albums enough digestion to realize that they're great. It's probably the change of listening habits. The whole album concept just doesn't gel.
2. Since you grew up listening to vinyl, what made you continue using it when the digital age came around?
It just gives you more sense of owning an album, as compared with newer mediums. Sometimes, for example, a photographer might shoot a few 100 photos. But because of the ease of taking many shots, people actually take photographs by chance. "Would it turn out well? Who cares. Let's just take a lot of shots because it's free anyway." But in the good old days, every shot actually matters because it costs, you see. And people actually give more attention into taking that one particular shot. It's the same with vinyl. The thing is that, A) It's a lot more troublesome in terms of maintenance and cleaning. So you actually sit down there and listen. As compared to digital, it's so disposable and easy. One friend used to tell me, his son downloads a 100 songs a week. Then by the end of the week he will delete that 100 songs and download another 100. Then you ask yourself, "How much do you actually love music in that sense?" Sometimes, it's only when you pay that you feel that there's a love and passion for something. Vinyls are actually something that you have to pay for, and once you pay for it, you listen to it. And because it's so troublesome, music becomes something you actually sit down to listen, appreciate, digest. It doesn't become just background music anymore. But this isn't happening in today's context. I had a customer who came in and told me that a person who loves music will buy vinyl. A person who buys vinyl are more serious about their music.
3. Why do you think people are 'going back' to vinyl?
To some people, vinyl is a deleted format. But to people your age (20s), it's actually a newer format. So why is a lot of people your age coming back to vinyl? Some people say sound, but let's not bullshit, not everyone knows sound. But what makes people your age go back to vinyl is the sense of ownership. CDs, because of its size and convenience, didn't give people your age a sense of belonging like "okay, I own that particular album." But now with the vinyl revival, teenagers and young adults - they have never encountered this. Then all of a sudden, we introduce them one thing - owning their music. A sense that you didn't have… and they actually listen and the rest just falls into place.
4. Do you see an increasing interest in vinyl?
Actually, internationally, the vinyl revival started more than 15 years ago. It took Asia more than 10 years to realize this. A couple of reasons; 10, 15 years ago in Europe or America, music is actually sold not in specialty stores but megastores like HMV or Target. Vinyl became very accessible to the Western kids, and they have a much better advantage because of locality, so they could get their music more easily than in the East. And the price difference between vinyls and CDs are actually not that far off. Also, in the 90s, people can't get the titles they want on their software (vinyls). But from 2000 onwards, they actually started a thing called 'reissues' which are new titles, so you don't have to be stuck listening to the music from the 70s or 80s that your dad left behind. All of a sudden you can listen to music that actually appeals to you. As I said, the vinyls price and CDs price is not much different in the West, so it makes kids think that the 12-inch looks big and cool, "Maybe we can give it a try." So that's how the vinyl revival started in Europe and America. But it has not materialized here yet for a couple of reasons. During about 15 years back, you still can't get a lot of the new titles you want in Asia, and because of tax and freights, it's a little more costly so we did not catch on as quickly. But we do see the crowd growing pretty well. In fact a couple of months back, Amazon gave a comment that their sales went up by 700% or something like that in the few years since they launched their vinyl store. You can't deny that internationally, vinyl is coming back in a strong way. But digital will be the future.
5. What are the demographics of your customers?
The youngest customer I've had here was 15. You see the thing is that there are 3 generations coming in here. The first would be the older crowd, who come for nostalgic reasons. Then there are people in their late 30s and 40s. Why? A) they realised they had more fun then. B) You can say it's for nostalgic reasons. When this age group were in their teens - when vinyl was making a headway - they couldn't afford it. So now when they can afford, probably they want to come back and buy the software that they wanted then but couldn't. Then of course, the third group is the youngest group. Some came in because of the 'cool factor', they find that it's cool, et cetera. But there are some who are very much into the music, and they find that they can appreciate more of the music and album artwork with vinyls, rather than with CDs or mp3s.
6. Is there an increasing crowd of young people?
Yes of course. But people must understand that - no matter what - it will still be a niche market, just like film cameras and typewriters. Online people are saying that vinyl went so well, it went so well, it went so well… but it still only makes up something like 4% of international sales. Which is not exactly a huge thing. So even if vinyl sales jump, it's still a small percentage of what music will be, or what will come along.
7. Is cost an issue for the younger crowd?
The thing is that, in comparison, young people used to get music for free. And now they need to pay. Sometimes teenagers and young adults will pay to a certain extent, but regardless of whether you like it or not, this is an expensive hobby. People should know what they're heading into. You can't deny that there are newcomers because of the 'cool' factor, but if we're able to ignite their passion for music, people will actually stay. But if these newcomers are in because it's cool, they will eventually wear off. Like I said, we don't have the best of localities, and with freights and taxes, high shop rentals and everything. So some of the vinyls can go for $40. If you ask somebody in the West, they cannot afford and will not afford the price. But in the Singapore context the standard of living is higher, even teenagers and young adults will afford this. It's a matter of how long they will do it for.
8. How did your interest lead you to opening Hear Records?
What happened was that last year, somebody came to me with an investment plan. I was talking to my brother-in-law, and he said "Look, at this stage where you're 40s plus, where you start up a new company and move away from your career path for two reasons." One is for more money - which I'm not interested - and the other one is to seek your passion. So I started this.
9. What makes analog different from digital for you?
As I was saying, if everything comes free and you have no sense of ownership, you will never feel for the materials. When you think about it, everything has a story. Can you remember the first handphone you bought? Can you remember the story behind buying those shoes? Can you remember your first download? Do you know what I mean? You wouldn't remember. The thing is, every album has a story to tell. Every picture has a story. But once you start taking a thousand photos, trying to pick the best shot out of that thousand photos, you don't relive that moment. So there is a special element with analog that's missing in digital. I gave this quote before on the Facebook page, "We're living in a digital world, but you have an analog heart." When you ask somebody in their 30s and 40s, they'll tell you a lot of things have changed with technology. They will tell you, "I remembered all my friends' phone numbers. I would write down all their phone numbers. But now I'm dead because I lost my phone, years of contacts." You can't deny that technology gave us a lot of convenience and flexibility, but it might have taken a lot from us, things that we probably don't realize. Back in those days, people don't bring a handphone. Now you feel so naked without a handphone, you can't leave home without it. But when you go to a restaurant, families don't chat anymore. You have mom, dad, kids all playing with an iPhone. I don't recall that in the 70s or 80s, because you have nothing much to do while waiting for the next dish, so you chat.
Also because vinyls cannot be duplicated, so you have this sense of originality when you hold an album. With CDs, you can just download the songs and convert onto CD.
