A needle drop is a version of a recording that has been transferred from a

vinyl record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog signal, analog sound Recording medium, storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, ...

digital audio Digital audio is a representation of sound recorded in, or converted into, digital signal (signal processing), digital form. In digital audio, the sound wave of the audio signal is typically encoded as numerical sampling (signal processing), ...

or other formats. Needle drops are sometimes traded among music collectors, especially when the original vinyl recording has not been released officially on a subsequent consumer format. It is also referred to as a "vinyl rip" or "record rip". Other reasons for trading needle drops include the lack of availability of certain recordings on

digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...

, the non-availability of less compressed versions in digital form, or the lack of availability of certain versions or mixes of that recording, e.g. mono or

stereo Stereophonic sound, commonly shortened to stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that recreates a multi-directional, 3-dimensional audible perspective. This is usually achieved by using two independent audio channels through a configurat ...

versions, or the loss of the

master tape Master recordings, or simply masters, are the original recordings—including Mastering (audio), post-recording mixes and Record production, production edits—of audio performances, from which all analog and digital copies of the audio are derived ...

. The term is thought to have been coined in 1949 by Peter Goldmark during the first rush of transfers of lacquer and 78 RPM records to the then-new long playing 33 ⅓ RPM format. Needledrop (usually as one word) is also used in the advertising industry for

production music Production music (also known as stock music or library music) is recorded music that can be music licensing, licensed to customers for use in film, television, radio and other media. Often, the music is produced and owned by production music libra ...

, or audio "that is prefabricated, multipurpose, and highly conventional... an inexpensive substitute for original music; paid for on a one-time basis, it is dropped into a commercial or film when a particular normative effect is desired." Linda Scott, "Understanding Jingles and Needledrop: A Rhetorical Approach to Music in Advertising", ''Journal of Consumer Research'' 17 (1990): 223–236.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Needle Drop (Audio) Audio engineering Music production 1940s neologisms

See also

References