

The Brazilian Bus Magnate Who’s Buying Up Vinyl Records - sheltgor
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/the-brazilian-bus-magnate-whos-buying-up-all-the-worlds-vinyl-records.html

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mbenjaminsmith
Somewhat related:

While record shopping in Hong Kong I managed to get over to Kowloon to a tiny
walk-up record store that had 1000s of used LPs stacked in boxes. The store
was so crowded no more than 4 people could be in it at one time and searching
LPs involved having the owner do feats of acrobatics to shuffle boxes around.
Most of it was junk, but he did have some gems if you told him what you were
looking for.

After buying a few inches worth I talked to the owner a bit: He had, by his
estimate, 200k LPs, most of which were off site in storage. He had moved to
Kowloon from the mainland without a dollar to his name and lived on the
street. When CDs hit the scene (I'm guessing mid-80s to early 90s) the status-
conscious HK residents started literally dumping their LP collections out on
the curb. Decidedly forward-looking for a homeless guy, the owner started
collecting them in one pile on whatever street he occupied. He slept under the
same plastic tarp that protected his collection from the rain for 20 years.

When the vinyl resurgence hit he did a fairly brisk business, was able to buy
some property and a Harley. He met the president of Harley Davidson while he
was in HK -- something that got him visibly excited when he talked about it.
Pretty cool guy.

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ChrisArchitect
good story, was this the 'famous' Ah Paul guy in HK? seen stories about his
place over the years, never heard this homeless bit

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hiphopyo
Anybody else into collecting/digitizing large volumes of vinyl from all sorts
of strange countries? If so let's talk, my Soulseek username is "freitas62".

[https://gist.github.com/anonymous/12240984d874d428ef51](https://gist.github.com/anonymous/12240984d874d428ef51)

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ChuckFrank
This is good work. If you are doing this, thanks.

~~~
bio4m
The parent post is a joke, the article metions the collectors last name is
Freitas aged 62

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danelectro
Well, ya never know sometimes.

Anyone who is serious, I have built a very high quality phono preamp (well-
proven prototype) especially for digitizing not only 45's & 33's (which adhere
to the RIAA equalization curve), but also 78's (which need compensation, but
not as extreme as the later "microgroove" recordings, and there was no
standard).

If you could buy one as good I wouldn't have designed mine.

With the right partner, could even be launched as a PONO recorder to
complement the upcoming PONO Player.

I'm easy to get in touch with.

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Shivetya
My grandfather used to service and collect money from juke boxes, they used
45s in his day. When the song went out of rotation it usually ended up in the
trash, however he kept a large number of them. Put them all in similar size
boxes so that they stood upright. The interesting part to me was that
collectors wanted these not for the songs but for the sleeves.

Vinyl is interesting and for older folks it can take you back to your
childhood. I am long past my days of listening to equipment, I want my music
as clean as I can get

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sxcurry
Interesting story, but I wonder if there really is any value in preserving all
this stuff? When I read about the efforts to save disappearing websites, I
wonder the same thing. Isn't there some value in letting things just
disappear, like dead trees rotting in the woods? I used to joke about a paid
service that would come to your house and take all your old photos and movies,
and throw them out for you...

~~~
Strilanc
Data is valuable. To historians it is intrinsically valuable, but it's also
instrumentally valuable for machine learning. Even the terrible stuff can
inform language models for understanding the good stuff.

~~~
NAFV_P
> _Even the terrible stuff can inform language models for understanding the
> good stuff._

The terrible stuff may be used for cutting and scratching. If you scratch the
vinyl, it adds character.

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jlas
I've spent time in both Pittsburgh and Brazil and it brings a tear to my eye
to see someone so passionate about music and so much logistical
interconnection happening between those two places, it's like a thunderbolt
through my former years.

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taksintik
To each his own, but I find this an exercise in futility. After having 3
collections stolen / destroyed, I will never buy physical CDs or DVDs or vinyl
ever again. I don't see the point. But if it makes him happy, why not.

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tferraz
This guy plans are amazing, until they are not real, he should let the guys
from Finders Keepers take a look

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yawniek
paywalled content.

but there was a pretty interesting link to an article about "sao-luis-reggae"
linked, but has since been removed.

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shiven
This one?

[http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/sao-luis-
reggae](http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/sao-luis-reggae)

