This Is the Winter of Listeners’ Disc-content

Your article forgot to take one aspect into account: length of playing time.

I have bought Tchaikovsky ballets of 2 1/2 hours each, which at the sale price of $12 a disc cost me $24 each. Had I bought them on vinyl, these works would have been on three LPs, which at a sale price of $8 a disc would result in the same total price of $24 per title. In playing six sides of vinyl I would have experienced five interruptions. On CD, there is only the one interruption in changing the two discs.

In classical music, it is common for the finest recordings to be augmented on CD. Symphonies that had originally been issued alone are combined with overtures, tone poems and other short works, bringing the length to 75 minutes. Pop music also has these increased playing times; Guns N’ Roses and Hammer have released discs that are longer than 70 minutes.

We may be paying half-again as much, but we’re getting half-again as much.

DAVID P. HAYES

Los Angeles