Was there really 1,148 titles released on Juno download on 26 November 2012?
Another 1,561 titles released on 27 November 2012?
a total of 3,124 titles released in the last seven days?
and a total of 26,870 titles released digitally in the last 8 weeks? (www.juno.co.uk)

I grew up in Chicago and at the age of 14 I began hunting down and buying vinyl records to build a collection and become a DJ one day. This was back in 80's and back then most records that came into stores were bought from distributors and a minor field of independent producers that could afford to press their own music. At the top of the food chain always seemed to be the distributor and over the years, one of the main european distributors is Juno. Juno has existed for over 16 years and has two sites: One is Juno Records (www.juno.co.uk) and the other is Juno download (www.junodownload.com). The download site has only existed for less than a decade and came into existence once the digitally download versions of songs became an overwhelmingly shift in buying practices for the majority of music buyers. Some blame it on iTunes, the iPod, MP3s, etc. but a large majority of consumers buy their songs in digital form and that has changed the market. However, for DJ that rely upon breaking independent records, the current digitally downloaded music list is a growing mess.

Lately, I cannot be bothered with looking for songs that are digitally downloaded. I'm still a DJ mostly and I do use digital files but there seems to be a real mess with digital and the way that the open door for independent music producers allows people to release just about anything without a label or distributor standing in the way to ensure quality. There's a massive list of titles each day.

The top posted example is pure madness and an example of information overload. The numbers only represent the feature titles themselves. Each released title could contain between an average of 1-to-5 tracks and no DJ or
Quality Assurance representative has enough time to preview 134,350 tracks? (approximately 5 track x 26,870).

For the online stores and distributors, there's no real risks in selling copies of a digital-only song files. Copyright, licensing, time & money invested into the songs produced are all expenses covered by the Label and/or Song Producers.

On the Juno Records side (vinyl), there's only 248 records released since Monday and 3,220 in the last 8 weeks. Isn't that is a major difference? May'be producing physical goods with concerns over fiscal responsibility is a great thing that restricts over-pressing of things that will not sell (per a label/distribution manager).

With the download site, Juno states they currently have over 3 million downloads available. You have to wonder if every day of every week a 1,000+ digital titles are added to the mess? It's pure madness and a good example of 'information overload' if you log onto the site and just begin looking for music.

Any thoughts?

Yes I have thoughts.
I started djing with Vinyl. I bought Traktor a few years ago and tried doing the digital thing. I got bored with it and am playing and buying 90% vinyl and buying very few digi releases.

It's kinda hard cause I am producing now and all my stuff has only been released Digitally, yet I still feel like it's kind of lame when I see my track come out next to 4 other pages of tracks that day on Beatport.

It is worth the extra money to me to buy vinyl for a few reasons
-I don't have to wade through as many samples online to find quality stuff
-I support vinyl labels because I started with vinyl
-I never could get used to packing a digital crate or organizing cd-s like I can with records.

It is kind of shitty the way things are totally washed away by the amount of stuff being released. But also maybe a good thing because people can be more experimental?

Not just a few big labels and distributors saying what is good and what is not.

I think there needs to be a replacement for the local record store maybe. Like sites that filter through all the stuff that you identify with.Kind of like the store guys that would hold records for dj's that they knew would fit there style.

I don't know though

yeah, there are a lot more digital releases.

i remember an article by stefan goldmann on LWE where he stated that the average digital track generates revenues of less than EUR 100. there must be a tremendous number of tracks which (essentially) nobody ever buys. however, not all is pretty in the market for vinyl. in fact, most dance singles and EPs sell less than 500 copies and generate a loss. (that's based on 2011 numbers.)

however, the cost of putting out a vinyl is substantially higher than the cost of putting out a digital release. for that reason, one might conjecture that the quality of the typical vinyl release is higher. but we don't know that for sure. you could entertain alternative hypotheses as well. after all, most dance singles produce a loss so either the people releasing are either ill-informed about the economics or they release on vinyl for non-monetary reasons (the latter being more likely imo).

Valid point

Unfortunately less vinyls' are bieng made. Everyone is migrating to digital

I personally know more vinyl DJ's than digital DJ's. Could be my age (35) though...

The quality of most vinyl releases is always there, a lot more money is at stake forcing a tighter qyuality control than with digital.

If I had the money to release and buy vinyl I definitely would, but I don't. Guess it's the same for a lot of peolpe. Although digital means sifting through all the below average releases it's the more accessible option. I also think that these sales are dwindling and will continue to do so as more and more people stream their music for free.

Sooner or later it will only be a small number of peolpe including DJs and enthusiasts that buy music. Basically the music industry as we know it is fucked.

Back to this discussion. In the past few months, I recently sold my brand new pair of CDJ-2000Nexus's and returned to using my 1210's. I did like them alot but I've been buying vinyl (mostly as my main source of music) and with the "hunt" comes very little time to burn & prep files. There's a lot of good music on wax but "the hype" 12's kind of kills the buzz or pride in finding something you thought you "must have" which becomes something you can no longer play. Sure, I never have enough time to be burning things but I've found that the brilliant HID control in Pioneer's decks kind of reduces them to just becoming very expensive controllers and with all that ease comes no real feel for me. So I had to step away from that before I became too far lost in that world. I haven't gone completely nostalgic though. I've hooked up my timecode once more and it instantly feels like it's the happy medium. While it's nice to have the best of both worlds, no it's not the best. I don't like the bad sides of an all- vinyl "hunt" but I dislike a forced mess of the all-digital dilema even greater. There's many things good and bad that I can quote as reasons why nothing feels right but to talk about that would add an extension to an already lengthy personal rant that no one would want to hear.

You can try to beat ' the odds' by finding a few good friends behind the counters or at the distributors but trust no one. The best thing to do is make sure you sound good no matter what you play. If you can find it and use it get it! Only the Pros get the best picks and the best thing to do is be a great DJ with production skills so that you can have stuff no one else has. The chances of that happening to the average DJ is really slim so don't count on it. Just like all these "Secret Warehouse" parties, those involved knew way ahead of time so try to get involved as much as you can.

You do have a better chance using what you've found and remixing/re-editing those tracks so you sound like no one else but it's a "Rat race" on all fronts so "happy hunting!" towards wherever you're looking for music.

I'm not setttled but atleast I've found some level of comfort in how and what I can use.....either way, I'm covered for a littlle whole longer with this set-up and I still prep my tracks in Rekordbox - just in case I catch-up and begin using digital mostly again!!!