Michael Fremer

Making Vinyl conference founders Bryan Ekus and Larry Jaffee asked AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer to prepare a 15 minute video to open this year's "Making Vinyl" conference held "virtually" December 8th and 9th 2020 via ZOOM for the first and hopefully final time.

There's still time to order online this double LP set curated with love by Lee's granddaughter Holly Foster Wells—or if your local vinyl emporium has a copy—pick it up "live". The 22 song compilation of course includes ten tracks from Lee's Christmas album Christmas Carousel (1960), but it also features songs from her earlier Decca catalog along with from the Disney animated classic "Lady and the Tramp", and a pair of duets with Bing Crosby. Six of the album's songs were written or co-written by Lee.

Ortofon just announced a new $999 2M moving magnet cartridge: the 2M Black LVB 250 in honor of Ludwig Von Beethoven's 250th birthday. More than just a re-badge, the 2M Black LVB 250 incorporates, among other enhancements, the nude Shibata stylus and boron cantilever found on the more costly MC Cadenza Black.

Nielsen/MRC reported that this year between Friday, November 27th and Thursday, December 3rd, vinyl record sales jumped 56% compared to the same period last year. 1.253 million records sold in that week, which was the largest sales volume of any week in almost thirty years.