All That You Buy, Beg, Borrow or Steal
Let’s face it. There hasn’t been a better pressing of Dark Side (with the possible exception of the original vinyl, which I haven’t heard) than the Mobile Fidelity gold disk. Which doesn’t prevent EMI from releasing it over and over again. That makes perfect sense, it keeps selling like mad. As bbum points out in “Dark Side of the Moon: The Porn of Audio Media:”
Back when CDs were launched in the early ’80s, Dark Side of the Moon dominated the CD sales charts for years and years. Similarly, it had been one of the hottest selling LPs back in the days when vinyl was king. As of today (6/07), the album has been in the top 100 — typically in the top 5 — for 1,558 weeks. Almost 30 years!!
So, I watched with quite a bit of amusement to see Dark Side of the Moon quickly take and hold the #1 (now #2) position in iTunes Plus. A 350% increase in sales was reached in the week after the launch of iTunes Plus. Thus, iTunes is following the same pattern as other audio oriented media; DSotM dominates sales as soon as a high quality recording is available in that format.
I wonder if DSotM on itunes plus will create or destroy physical media sales?
(Via Josh Gruber’s link blog.)
The original vinyl pressing of DSotM was nothing special. If anything was magical, it was the Mobile Fidelity vinyl pressing of same.
The Gold Disk from Mobile Fidelity is what disproves anyone claiming vinyl is better.
I can’t say whether the MFSL pressing was good because I didn’t do a controlled test. It sure sounded good on the speakers I heard it through at the stereo shop, though :^).
The thing I really liked about Floyd albums from back in the day was all the stuff (like stickers) they came with. I bought Dark Side probably around 1978 and it *still* had the poster inside. Likewise, Wish You Were Here had the full complement of stickers when I grabbed it around the same time (IIRC, it was also the first CD I bought). Oddly, I don’t remember Animals having any extras, and I bought it when it first came out.