Playing records is back in

In The Hustle, I found a nice article about the resurrection of the vinyl LP, the record, and the album.

Besides an answer to the meager income that streaming services provide for musicians, it is also a clear signal that having a physical thing in your hands is appreciated by many people. I want to get a record for my birthday again. Oh, and by the way, Concerto still exists.

Beautiful facts:

  • In the first half of 2021, 17 million LPs were sold. That’s 86% more than in all of 2020.
  • The comparison is a bit lame but does reflect the proportions: selling 100 physical (self-produced) albums generates as much revenue as 450,000 streams on Spotify (about $1800).
  • Less funny: vinyl creates 12 times more pollution than other physical formats.

Pretend It’s A City and finding yourself very funny

Fran Lebowitz is a native New Yorker, has strong opinions about everything, and is funny. Martin Scorsese made a series about her for Netflix. For this series, he interviews her, and she gets all the space she needs to showcase her opinionated views. In itself, it is a nice idea.

I watched the first episode. Martin Scorsese laughs way too hard and unreal at Lebowitz’s jokes. Instead of stepping back, Lebowitz also seems to find herself increasingly funny. The concept culminates in an adolescent banter between Scorsese and Lebowitz that soon becomes unwatchable. Too bad because what could have been a fun program with genius flap-out Lebowitz becomes a smug ‘crack-a-joke-or-else’ show.