Walmart exclusive coloured vinyls

[Kes]

To be fair, it was a large bit of campaigning to get the product team behind the issue of any coloured vinyls, some of them believe fans only want 180g black vinyl, which I know some prehistoric audiophiles are. Quality's always been an issue, but the technology behind the manufacture of vinyl crystals has steadily improved over the last 40 years. Still, the bootleggers were having a field day, issuing coloured vinyls that the band weren't.

The solution was to release colour vinyls in a strictly limited boxset, and of course the run of those sold out, like hotcakes. They've since re-pressed those about four times, as the individual black vinyl ones just sold at a steady rate.

The supermarkets, however, know what they can sell, and at what rate. I've always said ebay is a fair yardstick, and you've got enterprising people buying The Studio Collection boxsets, spitting them up, and selling them individually at up to double the price of the still available black counterparts, so obviously the market is there.

[Kes]

In the end, the next decision that had to be made, was what colours to use. The band decided that decision was to be made on dominant colours of the cover art.

Because there had been historic choices of certain albums being available around the world with some previously available coloured vinyls, French ANATO on white, French NOTW on green, New Zealand and French AKOM on orange, alledgedly SHA on red in Japan (I've never seen a real one!), repeats of those were chosen. Personally, I'd have picked ANY colour that hadn't previously been used, but....

The real travesty of the Studio Collection boxed set, for me, was ADATR, being black, because by definition, black is not a coloured vinyl.

[Kes]

Why does it matter?

The reason black vinyl is "the norm" is purely tradition. Naturally, the material they used for making vinyl, is clear. They mix the material with carbon, to make it black. These days, it "could" be any colour they like, with no appreciable lack of quality. The only thing that's cost prohibitive, is about 5p on the production cost of each disc of the dyes they use to give it a specific colour.

Funny that at point of sale, the record companies bang on about £3, for limited editions, or RSD versions.

Picture discs are a different ball game, as they are constructed with a blank disc (any colour that suits them), a vinyl picture (of whatever they want), and a sheet of laminate (that the groove is pressed into). Here, the quality of the music suffers, as the laminate isn't as durable, or hard wearing, as normal vinyl is.

[rodandbeth]

I too have been purchasing these releases and initially, I was also going to restrict myself to the colour variants that were new to us. However, I've basically been collecting them all and have just ordered the orange A Day At The Races and the pink Jazz. That will be my third pink Jazz following the Studio Collection and the HMV 'exclusive' but I'm interested in the label variants and other subtle differences too (nerdy, I know!). Watch out for a beautiful yellow vinyl pressing of Hot Space in a few month's time - the series will obviously continue throughout 2023.

My only real concern is that the Walmart/US editions don't seem to be quite as good in terms of packaging quality when compared to their black vinyl UK counterparts. The vinyl itself but also the sleeves are a little flimsier and whereas the UK releases tend to come with thick card original inserts and/or a plain poly-lined inner sleeve, the Walmart ones are just presented in a thinner paper version of the original inner sleeve. The edges tend to split with any movement, i.e. when mailed and it's quite frustrating to see such a lack of attention to detail.

One word of caution about those avoiding colour duplicates with the Studio Collection versions - News of the world is a sage green that's nothing like the Studio Collection green. Also The Game is a better silver finish than the box set too. That may sound a bit like self justification but I'm a collector so any excuse will do!

[Kes]

Keep the info coming. Thanks.

[A-Kind-Of-Magic]

I choose to avoid coloured vinyl, I prefer black vinyl, yes, I know, black is a colour too! I think for optimum sound quality, and low surface noise, 180 gram black is the best.

[Kes]

Back to the 70's, you're probably correct, but nowadays they promise that the chemicals they add, are identical in sound quality properties, as carbon. The only difference, as I said before is pennies, the cost of clearing the pressing plates of the colour vinyl mix, etc.

[Kes]

Apparently, the coloured vinyls to stay away from, are luminous ones, they do sound shit.

[WeeMann]

Apparently, the coloured vinyls to stay away from, are luminous ones, they do sound shit.

I've got a Steve Vai luminous one. It doesn't sound shit, but it's not as good as a normal coloured or black vinyl.

[Kes]

It seems it's the phosphorous content.