Eli5: Why does dj-ing not wreck the record they’re scratching on?
In: 40
It does. Any playback of a vinyl record does wear down and smooth the grooves… _eventually_. If the record is dirty, it happens faster. If the needle is forcefully dragged down the grooves, the wear happens much faster.
Not-a-DJ-but-I-know-some, but if someone is scratching a particular record as part of a set thing, like as part of a backing band on a tour, they’re gonna have a few extra copies of that record. When a DJ scratches they’re not dragging the needle across the grooves, but they’re just running the needle through the grooves a lot faster than they’d otherwise go. Its _accelerated_ normal use. So how fast the record wears down will depend on the nature of the scratching.
Through normal use where the DJ is careful with the needle and tracks are played to completion, a vinyl record is good for hundreds of plays. Having said that, a friend who DJ’d a pop station back in the early 90s that hadn’t gone fully CD yet said they ran through a few copies of certain frequently requested heavily play albums. Rumours by Fleetwood Mac etc. Thriller by Micheal Jackson.
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