Why are classical albums so cheap?

You're looking at $3 worth of music right here. 

The whole basis for this blog is the contention – supported by lots of inexpensive evidence – that it is possible to amass a respectable collection of classical music without going broke. Vinyl these days is inexpensive, if you know where to look. I’m not talking about the 180g records that new artists now release alongside their CDs. That’s a welcome marketing strategy, believe me, but I didn’t start this blog to write about new records.

My interest lies in the forgotten gems: albums that you can find in the $1 bin at a thrift store, yard sale or music store. Because if you search those bins, the only records available are:

1. lousy pop/rock/easy listening records; or
2. classical albums by the likes of Mozart, Brahms, Ravel and others.

This is not to say that classical music is inherently great and pop music is inherently bad. I love all kinds of music. But once you reach into the bargain bin, the choices seem to be reduced to the above. Given a choice between Ronnie Milsap and Leonard Bernstein, which would you choose?

Yeah, me too.

Part of it may lie in the ubiquity of classical recordings. For one thing, they’ve been around longer than rock ‘n’ roll albums, which only date to the 1950s. And the works of the great composers have been performed and recorded over and over again. So perhaps there’s a glut in classical music that doesn’t exist in later genres.

You could go your entire life without acquiring every recorded version of, say, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. But there are only so many versions of “London Calling” by The Clash, for instance, or “Abbey Road” by The Beatles. Record collectors are more willing to hold on to rock records – I suspect, based on no scientific evidence.

You know what they say: One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. The upside is that classical albums are more accessible than pop, rock or jazz records – if you have a turntable. (Of course, you can still find bargain-basement classical CDs cheaper than some rock albums).

Since I’ve started this blog in January, I have spent maybe $20 on classical albums. At a respectable independent record shop, that will get you one copy of “Heaven is Whenever” by The Hold Steady and it won’t even buy you the reissue of “Exile on Main Street” by The Rolling Stones. In terms of both quantity and quality, music lovers get a better deal when they go with classical.

Other sites, like the excellent Classical Convert and Get Into Classical, explain why the genre is not just for snooty elitists. So I won’t do that here. But I maintain that if you want to acquire music cheaply, classical is the way to go. Then there’s the added benefit of getting to listen to great music.

In a later post I’ll explain how I get the music from my record player onto this blog, if you’re interested.