Although he never literally poured his own blood into it the way The Flaming Lips’s Wayne Coyne once did, Jack White has a deep love for vinyl. Even before he created the world’s first triple-decker record in 2010, White wore his fandom of antiquated music outlets on his sleeve. Now, he’s letting like-minded fans do the same.
The former White Stripes frontman’s Nashville-based Third Man Records store recently acquired a refurbished 1947 Voice-O-Graph machine in its Novelties Lounge. Anyone visiting the store who can carry a tune will now have the opportunity to immediately press their music onto vinyl and walk out with a nifty souvenir. The booth’s machine stores up to two minutes of audio on a 6-inch record, and anyone who records inside it can also submit the results for streaming on a special part of the Third Man website.
As Brendan Benson, White’s cohort in side band The Raconteurs, demonstrates in the video above, users drop coins into a slot and wait for a signal to begin recording. Subsequent flashing lights announce when there are 30 seconds, and then 10 seconds left to record. Later, the 45 RPM record emerges, photo booth-style. Users have the option of dropping it into a prepaid postage envelope and sending it out to perhaps the person for whom the song was recorded.
One expects many a marriage proposal will be made in this booth by roots-rock-loving romantics for years to come.