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Blimey! It's over five years since Vinyl Vulture first published a section on the site regarding the collecting of library albums and much has happened since those carefree, halcyon days. Once the fancy of only UK-based collectors, purchased quietly from photocopied A5 dealer lists that would plop through the letterbox once a month, British library music is now well-known and in-demand around the world; perhaps most so as a result of the explosion of auction sites such as eBay and other online sources upon which library albums can exchange hands, albeit illegally, for large sums of money.

The amount of money required to collect some of the more desired albums also increased dramatically, as collectors worldwide were able to bid on and buy these items. As well as those excellent library albums that were universally desired (and rightfully so), unscrupilous sellers were also able to hype those lesser albums out of all proportion - claiming that the most average and uninspiring of library albums was in fact a haven of quality music, unused samples and, perhaps most annoyingly, the primo source of drum breaks for budding new music producers. This vastly bloated market situation existed for around 3-4 years but, thankfully, during the last couple of years the market began to settle down and now the prices that library albums demand is far more constant and reasonable, based upon actual desireablility and musical excellence rather than other purely selfish monetary factors generated by the sellers.

In tandem with the hype, a series of reissue albums have been released over the past 5 to 10 years - some good, some not so good. Some were quite obviously bootlegs; released without permission, using misleading track titles and devoid of useful information, whereas other fledgling labels did the decent thing and reissued the music with genuine love of the genre and obvious attention to detail - giving us packages with lavish liner notes, previously unissued photos and interviews. Irrespective of their individual merits, all of these albums worked to collectively increase the profile of British library music and as a direct result made the collecting of the original library albums even more desireable.

With the collector market unable to sustain the pandemic interest in British library music, the library collecting genre expanded to include European labels; reletively untapped during the 90's, this decade has seen the increase in popularity of German, French and Italian library music. As it is, the pages of Vinyl Vulture will remain faithful to the collecting of British library albums.

We started collecting British library albums over a decade ago and this much we do know. You need one of two things at your instant disposal – money or time. Fortunately, either will do you – you don’t need both as one of the following situations will arise; (a) you have the cash and so therefore can just speak to the dealers, bid on eBay etc and spend, spend, spend or (b) you can take the path of the righteous and actually hunt these gems down – and that takes serious amounts of time… Obviously a run in with Lady Luck from time to time is also of paramount importance...

The trouble with collecting UK library albums is that there are only so many albums of interest to the collector or producer in search of funky tracks, exotic nuggets or tasty breaks for their next release on Ninja Tune. We have found, in our collective experience, that these albums are all very well known and are listed in every dealer catalogue you flick through, are mentioned on every "wants list" you stumble over on the Internet and every auction on eBay containing the words "ill", "breaks" and "rare library" in the title. Don't deceive yourself - collectors are all after the same library albums you’re looking for. Over the last few years it has become very apparent that there are not ever many new additions to this hallowed list and once you’ve committed this anthology to memory then you’re all set to be on your way into the world of collecting library music.

But...

There remain dozens of undiscovered UK library albums out there that are may contain funky nuggets and exotic gems and so this is why we're all still interested in collecting these records. There is no better experience than finding an album that contains funky tracks, beat-pop, breaks and beats or a string-drenched Lounge masterpiece that is different to those so-called ‘highly collectable’ few that are sought by the dealers. I must admit to only a small number of ‘new finds’ and have generally used the dealer lists when hunting. But, don't lose perspective and use the dealer lists only as a guide – and set a trend of your own!!!

There are, in our humble opinion, two golden rules that you must stick to: – 

Rule One: Never assume that because you’ve stumbled upon an absolutely belting track/album by a certain composer that all of that composer's session output will be of an equally high standard. As a fellow collector once remarked "boy, that Alan Hawkshaw really did write some rubbish too, y'know..." (Alan Hawkshaw was responsible for such highlights as "The Champ" by the Mohawks as well as several great libabry tracks for the KPM and de Wolfe stables). The same also goes for collecting by label or period in time. We have never found that any of the usual rules of collecting apply; but OK, you can generally assume that anything after 1979 is going to be of dubious musical merit, tainted by the (over) use of slap bass and wonky synthesizers. That much is true.

Rule Two: Watch the prices! There is so much variation in the market that you’ve got to be patient and do not dive in headfirst if your money is short! We have seen an album rated by certain dealers at £150 selling in shops for as little as £15 (or in some cases, 50 pence!). Always use the online resources and use search engines when you can. You never know when a bargain may pop up in cyberspace.

When sifting through the creaking racks in shops and boot fair crates, be prepared to wade through lots and lots of crap should you ever chance upon a large pile of library albums! A portable turntable can quickly repay its purchase price in one session of sifting through and buying/rejecting library albums at a record fair, believe me. But, always keep an open mind on what you might just possibly find. Most library collectors will have a good story for you, and will spare you no detail explaining how they came aross a desired library album in the most unlikeliest of places...

In order to share the knowledge and save everyone’s precious time, Vinyl Vulture has produced a list of essential buys should lady luck ever present you with a box of library albums recently salvaged from the basement of an old TV company. The albums have been presented by label, trying to make the list a little more coherent.