There's one fatal flaw in the business of putting music on record, and that's the method used to get the music back off the record. The needle riding in the undulating groove does retrieve the sound, but each time you play the record that needle gliding along the groove is ruining it. By the time you've played your favorite record, say 50 times, it's likely that you've destroyed most of its fidelity.

Theoretically, the needle in groove principle works great; practically, it's pretty terrible. The laser beam, digital recording, and other systems, now in the planning stages do away with Tom Edison's original needle in groove idea. But in the meantime, plastic records remain the universal method of sound storage and retrieval, and if you want your records to stay like new you've got to go to some trouble to maintain their virginity.