Charity? Or Exploitation?

[snousle]

Something I've been thinking about: John has all these boxes and boxes of LP's - I figure maybe eight hundred, a thousand. Very interesting music, too.

A couple hundred bucks and you can get a turntable that streams the LP to a computer via USB. In the meanwhile, Ukiah has a good number of semi- to fully-disabled shut-ins that don't get to have much fun, and don't have much money.

So, I figure, put together a little kit with the necessary parts and a smallish stack of records, drop it off with someone who wants a little extra cash, pick it up a few days later, pay them, and see if it worked out. If it did, send them more.

How much would you pay someone to clean and play an LP? I'm trying to figure it out and can't come up with a number - it's like Donald Trump and Jesus are having a cage fight in my head. Each album is about forty or fifty minutes of music, so while it's only a little bit of "work" each hour, you still have to poke at it every twenty minutes or so. Kind of a nuisance. But hey, getting paid something to listen to interesting music all day? Not so bad if you don't have anything else going on. A box of a hundred records would take two weeks of 9-to-5- attention. Not sure how this scheme is going to match up with the computer skills of the worker - it might be that anyone who can do this would already have a job, maybe not.

Anyway, I've got Bill fishing around for candidates, maybe something good will come out of it.

Comments

[progbear.livejournal.com]

I have actually done this before. Lots of times. But using my old record player hooked up to my sound card. Something to think about, anyway.

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

A) I think this would be better with an older photograph with a speaker. Most computers really ain't wired for good music reproduction, unless you're gonna plug in headphones.

B) Currently, youtube has a bigger collection of music than anybody, including my weird Jane Morgan record.

C) But I think you got a good idea. Shut-ins need friends!

Dream Temp Job

[h0gwash.livejournal.com]

Minimum wage in cash would be sufficient, ESPECIALLY if you allow the person to copy the tracks he likes!

[barbarian-rat.livejournal.com]

I second Gerard's comment.

Re: Dream Temp Job

[snousle.livejournal.com]

I was thinking minimum wage would actually be too much considering the actual "work" is only a small fraction of the time involved. At that point it would be only slightly more expensive to buy the music new on CDs. I was thinking $3/album, which would work out to about half minimum wage.

I guess if it's not worth it they can always say no. The people I'm thinking of are VERY poor, and I don't want to be exploitative. But if the choice is $3/album, or being idle and earning nothing, it's still better than nothing. It definitely beats collecting aluminum cans.

Re: Dream Temp Job

[h0gwash.livejournal.com]

I think ultimately the access to the music pays for itself, the money is just a way of getting the music done quicker rather than slower. There is an additional problem of theft if the album you lend them is worth significantly more on ebay than $3. I suppose the USB turntable is worth a lot more than that itself, so trust is the biggest issue.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

No special Chinpokoturntable is necessary. A $25 Griffin iMic plus any normal turntable does fine.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Huh, interesting, guess I'm behind the times! Not sure if we own a regular turntable, though.

[danthered.livejournal.com]

Thirty bucks on eBay or similar, all day long, for an excellent Technics unit.

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

What I'm sayin' though, is that for $30, you can get an old "suitcase" type phono with primo sound, and carry it around.

Some thrift shops such as Goodwill, employ their charges to fix them.

[broduke2000.livejournal.com]

Oh, and Happy Bearded Birfday!