How to Digitize Vinyl Records Without a Turntable
Digitizing vinyl is much more difficult than ripping a CD. External CD drive on Amazon costs $ 26 ; a turntable with digital output costs $ 250 or more . In addition, you need to use dedicated software, specify the beginning and end of each track, record all the metadata, and ensure that the recording plays back smoothly. Or you can ask someone to do it for you. Here’s how.
Partner with a vinyl lover
I would love to do vinyl records, but I live in a New York apartment that is already packed with books and there is no room for records. And I love it when my music is available at work or on my phone, so it needs to be digital. But at least once or twice a year I come across music that is only available on vinyl. (Sometimes there is a YouTube copy that I can copy, but often it’s too low quality to be satisfying.) Often it’s not enough to justify a new hobby and new equipment.
So when I found a new song “Shoop Shoop Diddy Wop Cumma Cumma Wang Dang” from Monte Video and the Cassettes, and I wanted the rest of the album, I asked on Twitter: If I bought the album on eBay, would someone digitize it for me?
The hero answered me. David Buck is a nostalgic writer who blogs about classic video games and Weird Al , posts old YouTube commercials, and writes about iconic / groundbreaking music for the Tedium electronic newsletter . Our tastes … matched. But where I am an amateur, David is a specialist who collects vinyl and knows how to digitize it.
David has kindly agreed to digitize the LP Monte Video of the same name if he can save the recording. I was getting the best out of this deal – the album is usually available for less than $ 10 on eBay – but it became a fun collaborative project for us as we emailed about tracks and exchanged other new music releases. We got to know each other better, and now I regularly follow David’s work. We are friends on the Internet.
This is why I do not recommend that you go to David Buck. I don’t even come to him with every album that I want to digitize, because not every album is to his liking. If you want someone to do the hard work of digitizing music in their free time, offer them music that they like as much as you do. Or offer them a similar service yourself. Maybe you found some rarities that they couldn’t; maybe you can find information about the album that you both can discuss; maybe you have your own skills that people always need for free.
If you don’t have a wide network on regular social media, join a music forum or subreddit like Vintage Obscura . Contribute whatever you can and then ask for digitizing as best you can. Be warned, joining these forums will introduce you to a lot of vinyl rarities that you just need to buy.
If no one agrees with your trade offer, it’s time to shell out some money. It seems like a lot of money!
Pay for the digitization service
Since digitizing a recording requires several hours of physical and mental labor, it costs a lot of money. EverPresent digitizing service charges $ 35 per recording plus $ 30 service per order. Tri State Indie also charges $ 35 per entry, but their minimum order is $ 240. That’s a lot of money, but again, they do a lot of work, and professionally.
The cost can quickly surpass buying your own turntable. But you do pay for the labor and training that allows these services to transfer records better than you could do yourself. If you are looking for cheap music, you should have stopped at Spotify.
DIY, fun way
However, at some point, you may decide to learn how to do it yourself. Buy yourself a fancy turntable, read a guide to digitizing your own albums , ask for help on the forum (most hobbyists really love helping newbies). Save your notes after digitizing them so that if you improve them you can make new and better translations.
And once you’re really good, you can become someone else’s music buddy. Make your tastes public. Ask people to send you rarities that you can record. Offer your services on Craigslist.
If the track is truly not available anywhere other than used vinyl, and the artist or their property is clearly not making money from any sales, you might consider uploading the music to YouTube. While downloading copyrighted music is usually illegal, YouTube allows many unlicensed copies to be stored and deals with music labels to detect their songs and advertise on them. If you really want to keep it clean, you can find an artist and ask his permission. They may be in awe of having someone save their music.
Or, hey, keep it to yourself and enjoy what no one will ever find on Spotify. You deserved it.