Nothing quite beats the warm reverberation of a vinyl record.
Bringing the live musical experience to the comfort of your home, the rich rounded sound is something much praised by musos and men wearing leather pants alike, and championed by those who can appreciate a solid record.
Which is why your favourite radio hosts went vinyl this festive season.
Matt Heath and Jeremy Wells, from the award-winning Radio Hauraki Breakfast show, brought the sweet ring of their voices to the record sphere this Christmas and staked their bets that it would be the Secret Santa gift of the season - and boy oh boy were they right.
The radio-hosting duo revealed on Instagram today that, just a few hours after releasing the record, it had sold out nationwide.
The Matt & Jerry Podcast, with a monthly average of more than 200,000 downloads, has solidified itself as one of New Zealand’s favourite and funniest podcasts - and the hosts decided to bring their Christmas comedy exclusively to record players near you.
In collaboration with Holiday Records, New Zealand’s leading vinyl pressing plant, this limited-edition Christmas podcast is set to become a collector’s item, just in time for the holiday season.
Matt Heath couldn’t contain his excitement for the unique venture: “We’ve come so far with our award-winning radio podcast that we’ve now gone full circle and ended up back at the beginning of the audio innovation journey.”
Reflecting on what might seem like a bizarre foray, Heath said what we were all thinking. “Releasing a podcast exclusively on vinyl is so silly, it’s brilliant.
“Let’s just hope it sells out so we can keep our jobs!”
Joel Woods, co-founder and director of Holiday Records, shared his enthusiasm for the podcast project. “We’re really excited to work with Radio Hauraki behind the scenes to create something truly unique which we believe is a New Zealand first - a podcast on vinyl and unsurprisingly it sounds as fresh as can be!
“It has no doubt been the strangest record we’ve pressed, but by far the funniest. And the fact that you can only hear the audio on vinyl is truly rare,” he says.
While the record sold out nationwide, the radio hosts hinted that there might be a few Christmas vinyls left in their back pocket for giveaways and festive gifting, so tuning into Radio Hauraki is the only way to nab one of their highly-coveted Christmas records.