Interested USSR vinyl records? Soberu.ru online auction is always at your service! At any convenient time, you can pick up worthy items to replenish your adored collection, as well as sell old vinyl records of the USSR. All tasks are solved on Soberu.ru as simply and without problems as possible! Our catalog contains a lot of valuable things, for example, antique hand-held lanterns or antique equipment, etc. The price of products is very different.
Considering the vinyl records of the USSR, the price of which today is very different, it should be noted some Interesting Facts and the numbers associated with them. Thus, the world's first gramophone discs made of plastic material containing a sound recording for playback were made of celluloid. In 1897, they were replaced by products made from shellac, soot and spar, and they were very expensive due to the use of shellac - organic matter produced by a lac insect called Tachardia lacca. So for one disk it was necessary to use the labor of 4 thousand worms.
According to experts, the most expensive vinyl in the world is estimated at 100,000 pounds. This is a single from the Quarrymen and is dated 1958. Sir Paul McCartney became the owner of the only edition known to collectors. Expensive vinyl records of the USSR, of course, are highly valued, but they do not reach such fabulous heights.
The best vinyl comes from Japan. Experts began to add a special vinylite component to the plastic mass, which reduces the noise from the sliding of the needle, which is noticeably audible in the pauses between compositions. In addition, thanks to this substance, the appearance of electrostatic charges was minimized, and the service life of the disk also increased in general.
Collecting vinyl records
One of the entertaining types of collecting is the collection of sound recordings of various content, which is called philophony. The most common direction in philophony is the collection of music recordings on various media (from laser CDs to gramophone products). Of particular note are the records released in the USSR. Of course, collecting is associated with certain difficulties - you have to tirelessly look for them, find out how much old USSR vinyl records cost, invest money, and then ensure careful and careful storage.
Often, the basis of many philophonic collections, as a rule, is a home record library, for example, children's records of the USSR. When philophony becomes a serious hobby, the circle of collecting is narrowed. The personal taste of the collector prevails here. The collection of certain records of any direction or a specific artist begins. Fans of documentary recordings with interest collect performances of public and statesmen. The cost of vinyl records of the USSR is very different.
What do vinyl collectors pay attention to?
For collectors who once decided to buy vinyl records of the USSR, and began to pay due attention to the emerging collection, a number of factors related directly to copies are important. As a rule, the price of a particular product is formed from them. So what matters is:
- year of issue (old discs are of great value)
- circulation (good luck - to get a limited edition disc, for example, one in a thousand, these are rare records of the USSR)
- performer (there is a category of popular)
- condition (is the disc sealed, has it been played and how many times, are there any chips, scuffs and scratches)
- manufacturer's label
- disk image (unique illustration famous artist, master or rare photograph).
For those who were born and raised in the Soviet Union, his vinyl is a special world. Unfortunately, the domestic assortment of gramophone records is very small and mainly consisted of the work, of course, of Soviet performers. Basically, foreign records were imported into the country - semi-legally from different countries peace. Advertisements like Buy/Sell old USSR vinyl records were relevant, but it was not easy to get such discs. They were considered fashionable and covered with an aura of something forbidden. And today, collecting them has become a way of self-expression, a special subculture for several generations of Soviet citizens. Therefore, announcements like Buy / Sell records of the USSR are relevant.
It is known that for the first time vinyl records of the USSR, which are not difficult to sell today and the price for which is very different, were released at a factory near Moscow in Aprelevka. Over time, this factory became the largest disc manufacturer in the Land of the Soviets. On the first released products there was a gypsy song "Tramp", and they weighed 400 grams. Now these are rare vinyl records of the USSR, their price is very high.
During the war years, the production of discs dropped significantly. But after the war, the factory even mastered the production of long-playing vinyl. In 1961, the first stereo discs appeared, but ordinary 78 rpm discs were produced until 1971.
Despite the speed of technological development and qualitative changes in modern world, many interesting things remain unchanged today. Despite the rapid passage of time, they retain their value, remain all the same popular, fashionable and in demand. These include vinyl records of the USSR, especially rare ones. More than one catalog offers them, and the price increases every year.
And the popularity of such products is due not so much to the sound quality. As you know, the sound is simply incomparable with the sound of various digital media. Music gourmets and experienced collectors know that the sound of CDs is characterized by coldness and neutrality of sound, but this cannot be said about vinyl. Therefore, the prices for the records of the USSR, as a rule, are higher compared to other carriers.
Our catalog of USSR vinyl records is always at your service!
So I decided to create an excursion into the past, rummaging through the Foreign Stage published by the Melodiya company in the period from 1964 (the year the factories were merged into a “firm”) to 1991 (the year the country collapsed). Personally, after many years it was interesting for me to learn about the publications themselves (I didn’t know about some of them at all) and to see the original covers (I didn’t see most of them, because “the music is not mine”, I wasn’t interested until now). Don’t blame me, I ignored the “democrats” published on Melodiya, they were not interesting to me, but about them really good music I learned from their own “democratically-branded” gr.plates, whoever wants to remember, nostalgic, I advise you to visit this site: Eastalgia, in the catalogs there, all the released gramophone records of the "fraternal socialist countries" are listed!
I also advise the following sites, about gramophone records and others like them, a lot of interesting information:
"Melody" - a firm or "some fools are sitting?" and this one From the history of Soviet recording, and the site itself is interesting: Music World
All information, of course, is drawn from the Internet, in particular from 1964 to 1970 with Discogs "Melody"(probably not everything published there was uploaded, there is not enough information), most of the photo envelopes were downloaded from there, and from 1971 to 1991 I used the information from Catalog of vinyl records of the USSR and Russia 1971-95(compiled by Alexander "aka Alder, Alder47", I express to him sincere gratitude for the work done!)
I also used the information and pictures from this site Catalog of Soviet Gramophone Records and from this: 45worlds: Vinyl Albums
In search of the missing prowled all over the Internet. Alas, but not most pictures of "apples" and "backs" could not be found ...
To begin with, let's remember what formats of phonograph records were published:
17.5 cm vinyl disc (Vinyl, EP, 7", 33 ⅓ RPM, Mono & Stereo)- “Mignon”, in the Western classification “Extended Play (EP)”, but on Soviet songs from 3 to 5 songs were recorded, while Western “singles” were published with one or two songs, one on each side and with large center hole for playing on jukeboxes. Recordings on such media will be told for a full story because part foreign performers was published by Melodiya exclusively in this format and that's all ...
17.5 cm floppy disk (Flexi-disc, 7", 33 ⅓ RPM, Mono)- basically "cheap duplicates" of what was published on 7 "" vinyl minions ", with bad quality sound (neither "lower" nor "high"), but it was recorded on them and never repeated, I will only mention some of these editions. Yes, there was also the "Monthly Socio-Political Literary and Musical Illustrated Sound Magazine" Krugozor "" and we must pay tribute to its creators - in some issues you could read about foreign musicians and even see those musicians on quality photos!
25 cm vinyl disc (Vinyl, Mini LP 10", 33 ⅓ & 45 RPM, Mono & Stereo)- Grand Disc.
Editions on such media will be mentioned only a couple of times.
30 cm vinyl disc (Vinyl, LP 12", 33 ⅓ RPM & 45 Mono & Stereo)- giant disc
aka "Long-Playing (LP)" - the main part of the pro editions on such record formats.
So: the chronology of the 1st pressing of publications is basically observed (for some publications “plus or minus a year”, the “Catalogue” sins with a mismatch with the real years of publication, as well as other sources, confidence was only in the specifically indicated years on the “pyatak” disks (but years were not always written)! If I was sure, I eliminated the chronology errors!) The catalog numbers of one side of the gr.layer are indicated, so as not to litter with numbers. (p.s. because a third of the cat. No. from the "Catalogue" did not make it through the search on discogs.com(mostly - alphabetic Cyrillic (changed to Latin), errors in numbers (unfinished or superfluous), and where it’s right - where it’s wrong - hz ?!), all numbers are listed under the search engine discogs.com, there are a lot of pictures, tracklists and other info, in short for the convenience of searching, if you wish, take a look for the sake of interest).
The “excursion” includes almost everything (a couple of dozen publications are missing in the “Catalogue”, supplemented from other sources, found purely by chance, probably something else was missed ...?!), “ Foreign Bandstand Capitalist Countries ”, published on phonograph records by the Melodiya company, as it was classified -“ Foreign Estrada ”(classification by catalog numbers with the letter“ 60 ”(Estrada)), without division into the genres“ chanson, pop, rock, jazz, etc. .d.”
Year 1964
It’s not “big” at all, just two minions and a grand - all chanson:
Edith Piaf(33D-00014111 / 7” Mono)
Marlene Dietrich(33D-00014217 / 7” Mono)
Renard Collet(33D-13991 / C 000199-200 / 10” Stereo)
Evgeny Maksimov ©
There are a lot of disputes and legends on this issue, but before drawing conclusions, let's take an interest in this company.
In this article, I used material from Wikipedia, and selected the most significant facts about the great work and excellent quality of Melodiya.
Foreign trade association "Mezhdunarodnaya kniga" became the representative of "Melody" abroad. Through the "International Book" contracts were concluded, exported.
Through mediation in 1965, Melodiya signed a contract with Ariola-Eurodisc, the German company Ariola Records (also known as Ariola, Ariola-Eurodisc), a German record label. 
The Ariola-Eurodisc label was founded in 1958. In the 1980s, Ariola Records established a subsidiary to develop computer programs and video games - Ariolasoft.
By the way, since the late 1980s, Bertelsmann Music Group has been owned, as part of Ariola entered Sony Music Entertainment.
In accordance with the agreement, Ariola received special rights to publish and distribute classical music from the music library "Melody".
The success of sales of Soviet records in Germany was a factor in the signing of an exclusive contract "Melody" with the US company "Capitol" in August 1966.
Capitol Records is a major US record label.
It was founded in 1942. In 1955 it was bought by the British big record company EMI. In 2001, EMI merged Capitol Records with another label, Priority Records. 
According to Capitol President Alan Livingston, most of the material was planned to be recorded in Russia; At the same time, he noted that the high quality of Soviet sound recording is not inferior to American.
By 1970, Capitol planned to release 300 million records of classical music from the Melodiya record library.
For this, the joint company Melodiya-Angel was founded. Moreover, the expectations from sales in America were justified, and later, in connection with the sale of 250,000 records of Soviet records, Melodiya was awarded the Golden Disc from Capitol.
In 1968, a contract was signed with HMV, with HMV Group PLC- inheriting its name from the famous "His Master's Voice" logo, showing a dog, HMV Group PLC is one of the leading 
enterprises retail music, books, and entertainment media of the United Kingdom, entries from the Melodies catalog were in the UK.
Dog at the gramophone main value HMV Group. The HMV logo, which appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, is one of the legendary ones. It depicts Nipper, a fox terrier listening to the recorded voice of his deceased owner. By the way, the name HMV itself stands for “His Master’s Voice” (“His Master’s Voice”), but the company was originally called The Gramophone Company.
At one time, for this right to portray Nipper, she was paid £100.
(1884-1895) was a dog who served as the model for a painting called His Voice 
Host of His Master's Voice. This image was the basis for the logo used by several audio brands: Victor Talking Machine Company, HMV, EMI, RCA, RCA Victor, Victrola, Electrola, Bluebird, Zonophone, JVC and Deutsche Gramophone.
As of 1970 Soviet records exported to more than 65 countries peace, including including France, the Netherlands, and even Japan; moreover, contacts were established with the countries of Eastern Europe.
Since 1973, after the accession of the USSR to the World Convention on copyright began to develop licensing agreements.
The desire to expand production and improve the products of "Melody" was indicated with the launch of a new enterprise - the Moscow Pilot Plant "Gramzapis" (MOZG), which went into operation in 1978.
In 1986, a contract was signed with Mobile Fidelity.- Founded in 1977 by Brad Miller, MFSL 
specializes in the remastering of music by a major label for the "" market. which became the exclusive distributor of Melodiya records in North America.
By 1991, Firma Melodiya owned 21 enterprises, including factories and record stores.
But the circulation of Melodiya products began to gradually decline. This was due to the economic situation in Russia, the reduction in orders.
In the early 1990s, the director of Melodiya, Valery Vasilyevich Suhorado, signed an agreement with the BMG recording concern.
Under the agreement, licenses for phonograms and distribution rights were transferred to BMG for exclusive use, which, according to Troshin, led to the destruction of the entire structure of the Melodiya company. In 2003, the contract with BMG expired. so, what is next????
Of the recording equipment, the studio had, in particular, a Swiss four-track tape recorder Studer J-87 (1971).
From the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Sound engineer" Anatoly Veizenfeld.
- The microphones were really tube Neumann 47, 87, etc.
- Both Leningrad and "Ekran" were used, now "Nevaton"
- Consoles - Amek, Neve, Siemens, Valley People
- There was very little processing in the main: Valley People compressors, Klark teknik, Sony, Trace Elliot EQs.
- sheet reverbs AKG, Tesla.
- Tape recorders - Studer, Sony, Otari, as well as Telefunken.
The master disc was cut on an Ortofon device from the so-called “corrected take” the equipment in the studios was the best that only then existed, but far from all operators were allowed to use such high-quality equipment and not everyone knew how to work - moreover, the quality of the Melody records is on sale differed greatly. Hence a lot of questions about the differences between records on labels, factories -.
Studio sound engineer Rafik Ragimov, spoke about the work on the 1st albums of the Pesnyary group in 1979-1980, mentions the 24-track Studer and Otari, the English Amec console, the German Neumann U47 microphones. From the beginning of the 1960s, all VSG recordings were made only in, in the 1970s, the development of quadraphonic recording began. In 1966-1976, the WSG received about 50 international awards. not sickly, for those times !!!
Also in operation in the 1980s was the traveling studio "Tonwagen", also known as "MCI", manufactured in London and 
demonstrated at the Moscow exhibition "Communication-80". There are some underground groups on it: they went after the studio and worked in it at night.
So in 1983, the Aquarium group recorded their albums and strange games, and in the period from 1987 to 1989, the albums "Block of Hell" and "The Sixth Forester" of the Alisa group were recorded. Of the discs officially recorded at the studio, the first studio album group "Master".
The All-Union Recording Studio (VSG) was organized on November 5, 1957, the recordings took place in a specially equipped building of the former Anglican Church, with a large (on the ground floor) and a small (on the second floor) studio halls.
There were also special equipment rooms for editing recordings and removing duplicates, which were equipped with numerous devices for recording on magnetic tape and census on tondisks, a restoration equipment room for restoring especially old records from archives, as well as private collections. Available for recording from the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory and Bolshoi Theater. The editorial office and management of the VSG was located in the pastor's house at the church.
The Leningrad recording studio was opened on April 29, 1959. In 1964, the studio became part of Melodiya as an independent structure.
All recordings took place in the building of the Academic Chapel, and since 1988 in the premises of the Lutheran Church on big avenue Vasilyevsky island. Initially, the studio was equipped with equipment developed by the Leningrad Optical and Mechanical Association, then with Czech equipment from Tesla - I have such layers-very good. good ones. And again )))
In 1964, together with the Riga plant, she became part of Melodiya. From the first days of its foundation, the permanent editor-in-chief Joan Yushchuk (Est. Joann Juštšuk) worked in the studio. In 1967, there were already 8 people in the studio staff. The sound engineer and music researcher Heino Pedusaar improved the high quality of the recordings.
main part cultural heritage Studio Melodiya began work on a series of recordings organ music. I myself this series)))
In 1978-1986, the musicologist Ruta Skudienė, a compiler of Lithuanian jazz collections, worked as an editor at the studio.
Over time, the studio was equipped with the most modern equipment, stereo and multi-channel recording methods were mastered: in 1987, the studio had an 8-channel Studer mixing console, 2-channel Studer A-80 and C37 tape recorders and an 8-channel Ampex 440V, sound speakers.
The Leningrad plant of gramophone records was put into operation under the leadership of the director and innovator Yu. Kh. Tsomaev in 1948 at 11 Tsvetochnaya Street.
In 1956, the release of long-playing records began, in 1962 - stereophonic records. Since August 1957, it became known as "Accord" and became subordinate to the management chemical industry Lensovnarkhoz.
On July 11, 1964, the plant was included in the Melodiya company under the name Leningrad Record Plant of the All-Union Record Company Melodiya. He released records at 78 (grands) and 33 rpm. (flexible, minions, grandees, giants). In 1972, the plant mastered the production of color records. In the mid-1980s, in addition to the main ones, he printed records for the Polish company Tonpress.
Of course, the conclusions are up to you, gentlemen, but based on this material, it can be judged that the Melodiya company was equipped with excellent imported equipment, and could compete well with the well-known record labels of those years.
On September 1, 1910, a factory for the production of domestic gramophone records was opened in Aprelevka near Moscow. Over time, it became the largest producer of records in Russia, and then in the USSR. The first record released at the factory was a record with a gypsy song "Tramp", this record weighed about 400 grams. Now record collectors are ready to pay a lot of money for such a rarity. During the first year of the factory's operation, 400,000 gramophone discs were produced. And within a few years the factory took one of the leading places in Russia in the production of gramophone records.
New life factories began after the revolution, when production was nationalized. In those years, gramophone records were used for propaganda and agitation, they produced recordings of speeches by new Russian leaders, including V.I. Lenin.
By the beginning of the 1930s, the factory began to produce records again, and was soon transformed into a plant, where the annual production of records reached 19 million.
During the war years, the production of records decreased significantly. And after the war, at the end of the 40s, the factory mastered the production of long-playing records. In 1961, the first stereo records were released, but regular 78 rpm records continued to be produced until 1971.
In 1964, the Melodiya recording company was established in the USSR and began new stage the life of the plant and the production of records. The plant began to produce not only musical records, but also a significant number of records for children. Entire generations grew up in the USSR on fairy tales recorded on April records. But the main deficit in the 60-80s were records variety performers.
In the early 90s, the production of records began to fall, and in 1995 the production of records completely stopped and the plant switched to production of tape cassettes.
I would like to believe that the age of gramophone records has not ended. And the old recordings, many of which were made in Aprelevka, will please for a long time to come true connoisseurs music.
Many people are already interested in the highest sound quality of their loved ones. musical performers who performed and perform on different concert stages. According to many, vinyl records from the times of the USSR, which are still available in a fairly extensive and versatile assortment, have the best sound quality. Such high-tech products over time, with proper use, do not lose their original quality. They are in rather high demand among connoisseurs and at the same time cost very little.
The price of records can differ quite seriously - starting from hundreds of rubles, and ending with hundreds of thousands. Of course, this applies only to those records that were released not on the territory of the USSR, but, for example, in the USA. Finding out the real cost of a particular product is not always possible on your own - in some cases it will not be superfluous to consult with specialists who can give a real assessment and help you purchase the right record at a democratic cost. In some cases, one should compare different variants and only after that already to acquire the necessary gramophone record.
Speaking briefly about the cost of Soviet vinyl records, I can assure you that 99 percent of all records kept by our citizens do not cost even 50 rubles apiece. The price will be about 100 rubles if the record is in excellent condition, and at least not unpacked. Sometimes you can try to sell some copies that were released in a small edition, at a price of up to 300 rubles. This, for example, soviet rock, or a Beatles record released by Melodiya.
Someone may say, they say, I saw a Beatles record for sale worth 20,000 rubles. Everything is simple here - the concepts of “made in the USSR” and “branded record” are different. Or another example - a record with Vysotsky's recordings of any Soviet factory today costs 20-30 rubles, but if the plastic with Vysotsky's recordings is made somewhere in France or in the USA, then its price increases by 100-200 times. Maybe you have one too, if someone brought it to you from abroad. And they can also say that on some resources, ordinary Soviet records are sold at a price of 500-1000 rubles apiece. Remember, if you are selling, it does not mean that you are buying. For example, on the forums of collectors, sets of Soviet vinyl records (in the amount of 100-200 pieces) can be bought for literally 1000-2000 rubles.
People who are far from collecting may ask a reasonable question - why then the records are cheap, because there are no more of them. The answer is simple - at one time there were records in every Soviet family, respectively, hundreds of millions of them have survived to this day. And there are not so many collectors of vinyl records. For example, I know about 50-60 coin collectors, but not a single record collector.
There are a number of different Soviet high quality and interesting vinyl records that have been released in limited editions, which is why they are in high demand and have high artistic value. Every year they are more and more difficult to get, which is why their cost is constantly increasing. It is easy to be convinced of this by comparing the cost of certain records for different years of release. total cost plates depends on a number of factors, namely:
manufacturer company;
- year of issue;
- the number of records in circulation;
- popularity and relevance of musical recordings;
- general state vinyl;
- label on the disc;
- the presence of the envelope and its condition;
- dedicatory inscription of the performer, etc.
The most famous factories producing various vinyl records in the time of the USSR were the following - the company "Melody", "Moskovsky experimental plant Recording", "Aprelevsky Order of Lenin gramophone records" "Leningradsky plant records", "Riga Order of Honor Records Factory", "Tbilisi Recording Studio" and some others. Such manufacturers produced products of the most highest quality, which fully met the standards of quality, reliability. You can easily verify this if you start listening to the available recordings. When choosing one or another record, you need to check its quality, since there are times when fakes come across or the product has received serious wear.
It is possible to find and select the desired record, both in the relevant music stores, boutiques, and on specialized portals and forums. At the same time, preference should be given to those who have already managed to prove themselves and offer products of the highest quality level. Soviet records are, although not the most profitable investment, but many modern collectors choose them for their collections.
