Why Am I Still Buying Records?

Zack of Zack’s Records has spent most of his life collecting. He owns plenty, can stream almost anything, and has even wondered what would happen if he sold it all. Yet another record always seems to find its way home.

A few years ago, a friend of Zack’s sold his record collection to a record store in Toronto for a substantial amount of money.
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Naturally, Zack wondered what his own collection might be worth. But then he started thinking about what selling it would actually mean.

“Okay, so I sell it. Then what? I don’t really know.”

That's the problem.

Zack has been buying records since he was young. These days, collectors may know him through Zack’s Records on Instagram or as one of the voices behind Groove Daddies, a new project coming soon where five dads talk about records, music and everything that tends to come with it.

He buys less than he used to. Partly because he already has a lot.

Then something catches his attention and he's off again.

“So why am I still buying more? I don’t know if I have a great answer. I hear something I really like, and I want the record.”
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Fair enough.

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Still Looking for “What Is This?”

After decades of listening, Zack says it's now harder to find music that genuinely surprises him than it is to find a record he wants.

That doesn't necessarily mean the music isn't out there.

Recently he heard Angine de Poitrine. There were things he recognized, but also things he hadn't heard before. His reaction was immediate:
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What is this?

“It made me think maybe there are still places for music to go that I can’t even imagine yet.”

He's started listening to college radio again while he works. If something jumps out, he'll Shazam it and save it. Friends send him music. He works his way through their playlists.

There's no shortage of things to listen to.

If anything, that's the problem.
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Zack has a family, a job and access to more music than he could ever get through. When he was younger, he probably gave individual records more time simply because there weren't as many competing for his attention.

“Having access to almost everything is great, but it can also be overwhelming. There’s always something else I could be listening to.”

He still wants to discover more music. Finding the time to properly listen to it is another matter.

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Music First

None of this means Zack has lost the collecting bug.

Put a Japanese pressing of a record he loves in front of him with an obi and, as he says, “boy oh boy, I’m interested.”

But it has to be a record he actually wants to hear.

“If I don’t want to hear the music, I’m not buying the record.”

He's not a completist either. There are records by artists he loves that he doesn't own simply because those particular albums don't do much for him.

It's also why parts of modern vinyl culture can leave him a little cold.

“There are times when I look at vinyl culture and think some of it is all show, no depth. The limited editions, colours, rarity, whatever.”

Then again, Zack knows he's benefiting from the same vinyl boom. Records he never expected to see again are being pressed because people are buying them.

“So who am I to complain?”

He'll pay more for a good pressing himself. If he loves an album, he wants to hear it sound as good as it can.
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But the pressing isn't why he loves it.

“The better pressing isn’t what makes the music affect me. Whatever it is in the music that grabs me, it’ll still grab me on Spotify.”

Instagram brings out another contradiction.

Zack doesn't think social media has changed what he buys. If Instagram disappeared tomorrow, he says, his collecting wouldn't change.

But he's getting a little tired of how records are presented there.
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And he knows he's done all of it himself.

“How many times can we see a stylus drop on a record, someone pulling a record out of a sleeve, posing with a record sleeve, or standing in front of a wall of records? I’ve done all of those things too.”

He admits he wants people to like what he posts. Who doesn't?

But there is something funny about how much time record collectors can spend doing everything around a record.

Finding it. Comparing pressings. Organizing it. Cleaning it. Photographing it. Posting it.
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All before actually putting the thing on.

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“I Have That.”

Some of Zack's best moments with his collection now happen because of his sons.

One of them will mention a band or an album.

Zack gets to say:

“I have that.”

Then he pulls it off the shelf and they listen together.

It reminds him of being 13. Back then, records weren't quite as individual as they are now. If one friend got something, everybody heard it. They were constantly at each other's houses listening, borrowing albums, taping them or walking around with a ghetto blaster.

“If one of us got hold of something, it almost became part of the collective collection.”

His sons have brought a bit of that back.

There is another benefit.

“When you’re a dad, your kids generally think you’re a loser, so every once in a while it’s like, yeah, maybe I’m still a little bit cool.”

As for what happens to all the records one day, Zack has already told his son to open a record store.

He isn't particularly sentimental about the rest.

“I’m not a pharaoh. I’m not taking it with me. Maybe put one or two in the casket. But at that point I’m dead. I don’t care.”
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Hard to argue with that.

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Aha. Gotcha.

Ask Zack whether finding a great record still feels the same as it did 30 or 40 years ago and the answer is yes.
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He sums it up better than anyone else could:

“Aha. Gotcha.”

He might already know the album. He may have streamed it. But actually finding the record still does something.

“There’s something about finding the record. I now can own those sounds. I can put it on my turntable.”
Why should physically owning those sounds still matter?

Zack doesn't know.

“Why that still matters to me, I can’t really explain.”

And really, why does it need explaining?

There's still music out there that can make him stop and think, What is this?

There's still the satisfaction of finding a record and thinking, Aha. Gotcha.

And now there's his son naming an album and Zack being able to walk over to the shelves and say, I have that.

Zack loves talking about music. He says he'll talk about it to death with a complete stranger. Zack’s Records and Groove Daddies give him plenty of opportunities.

But when he's home alone and a record is playing, none of that really matters.
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He's just listening.

“Maybe sometimes we should just listen.”

He's probably right.
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And then, sooner or later, another record will come along.

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