Music: Want to Buy a Record Player?

Like a dervish whirling at three different speeds at once, the U.S. record industry has begun to come apart at the seams. Its head. RCA Victor, has gone flying off at 45 r.p.m.; its right arm, Columbia Records, has spun away at 33½-r.p.m. The body of the industry, including a good part of the Victor and Columbia product, has continued to turn at 78 r.p.m. But one by one, other record companies have been dragged after the two big innovators. Last week Capitol Records, which had already begun to press at the 45 speed on Victortype, seven-inch discs, decided to pattern its classical catalogue after Columbia’s LP (Long Playing) records.

For the record-buying public, this schizoid spectacle has been confusing, to say the least. Why go on buying the old 78s, when 45s or 33-⅓s are obviously the coming thing? But which of the two new types to buy? Columbia’s Long Playing 33⅓, s whose microgrooves can hold a whole symphony on two sides, have an advantage in convenience over Victor’s small 453 for long classical selections. Also, Columbia’s seven-inchers are quite as good for popular music as RCA’s seven-inchers, though there are as yet few automatic record changers on the market which will take the Columbia product.

So why not buy a Columbia 33⅓-r.p.m. turntable, plug it into the old 78 r.p.m. machine, and call it a solution? Nearly a million record buyers have done just that. But millions of others have hesitated. RCA Victor has by far the world’s largest recording roster of fine artists. Would the rest of the industry be pulled into RCA’s strong orbit? Until they had the answer, many record collectors stopped buying altogether.

To exorcise the speed demon, top executives of RCA Victor, Columbia and Decca have been huddling in quiet meetings. Last week there was still no agreement. Until the industry pulled itself together, record fans had two sensible alternatives : postpone buying or buy a turntable that plays all three speeds. There are about ten on the market, ranging in price from $15 to more than $50.

The entertainment trade magazine Variety, a little dizzy from watching the industry spin, saw still another possibility: the public might say “aw-nuts to the whole thing and [go] back to just playing the radio.”