BBC will auction 285,000 vinyl records by mid-2025 | music

Over the next 18 months, the BBC will auction 285,000 vinyl records, almost all of which are duplicates in its extensive recording archive. The first auction, promoted by Omega Auctions, a British auction house specializing in record sales and Souvenirs From the world of music, it will take place on the 30th of the month and includes rare recordings from groups such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd – that is, the first two albums of the band, which also included Syd Barrett -, Black Sabbath, David Bowie or the German religious group Megaton. .

In addition to the vinyl records, which range from classical to jazz and various subgenres of popular music – the covers of which are almost always affixed to BBC paper cards – the 421 lots in this first auction also include vintage televisions, radios and other equipment from the BBC Collection BBC, British public broadcaster.

With the vinyl record trade on the rise – it would be necessary to go back to 1990 to find figures higher than those recorded in the UK in 2023, with 5.9 million records sold – the BBC's initiative to auction part of its collection is one that has sparked great interest, as Confirmed by the bids already submitted on location From Omega Auctions, some are well above the maximum estimate suggested by the auctioneer.

Interested parties can bid now ConnectedThe auction house will also allow potential buyers to observe the records On site Its headquarters are in Newton-le-Willows, in Lancashire, northwest England. The auction will take place inside the room starting at 9am on January 30, and the opening price will correspond to the highest bid received by the lot in question in the meantime. Connected.

Some pieces consist of a single disc, such as the eponymous (and only) album by the ephemeral German rock band Megaton, created and disbanded in 1970, which already has a bid price of £320 (€373), or the English version in 1970. The man who sold the world (1971), by David Bowie, with the famous cover showing the musician leaning on a piece of music A chaise longue He wears a women's dress, in which producer Tony Visconti's first name is incorrectly spelled with a double “n.” The latter has already received five bids Connected Its price reaches £440 (513 euros), which is above the auctioneer's maximum expectations.

There are also multi-disc collections, such as Collection 46, which combines Pink Floyd's first two albums, The flute at the gates of dawn (1967) and A bowl of secrets (1968), which at the eleventh bid had already doubled the £250 (€291) predicted by Omega Auctions, or, say, a bundle of six different editions of the album Please make me happyWritten by The Beatles, originally released in 1963.

But some collections can contain hundreds of records, as happens with various selections from the catalogs of publishers such as Decca, RCA, Polydor or Deutsche Grammophon. Among the latter, Batch 384, which has not yet been released, presents a selection of no less than 614 albums, the total price of which is estimated at between 150 and 200 pounds.

Also among the higher-priced pieces is vintage equipment used in BBC studios, from consoles to microphones and illuminated advertisements. Or even a group of three devices classic A television, to which a cabinet has been added to simulate a television that may have been used as a prop.

In this first auction, the lot that Omega Auctions – estimated at between £500 and £700 (€816) – appears to be. Music of ancient Russia, a recording in which Odessa-born violinist Nathan Milstein (1904-1992) performs works by great Russian composers. Milstein, known for his recordings of Bach, is already represented in several pieces.

Jazz lovers will find gems here such as new Horizons (1960), by Tommy Whittle Quintet, O Triple (1967) for pianist Mike Taylor's trio. Other well-represented genres are progressive rock, punk or heavy metal, the latter, for example, with a collection collecting the original versions of the first three Black Sabbath albums, including the influential albums. Paranoidfrom 1970, but also albums by the Swedish Bathory or the American Sirith Ungol.

Announcing the auction, Omega Auctions, which will also be responsible for subsequent sales, wanted to reassure any critics of the decision, stressing that “this is not the entire BBC vinyl archive, which remains practically intact, but essentially duplicate copies, allowing the collection By changing its location and preserving it better in the future.