Traditional Burial Alternative: Turn Your Ashes into a Vinyl Record?
For some people, traditional funeral planning just isn’t enough. The rituals surrounding burial and cremation have been around for so many hundreds of years that it’s almost impossible to make your funeral stand out from the crowd as something unique and special. That’s why some companies take the process of body disposal to a new level—even so far as turning you into a vinyl record.
Alternative Body Disposal Methods
These days, there are countless creative body interment methods. For a price, you can have your cremated remains sent out into space, buried in the sea as part of a massive coral reef project, or compressed into a diamond to be passed down for generations.
The reasons behind these alternative burial methods are varied. For some people, it’s important to do something that sets them apart—that transforms their death from an ordinary event to a unique experience that will have people talking for years. For others, it is part of a personal lifestyle that can continue on for thousands of years. For example, if the deceased loved underwater adventures and sustainable ecology, becoming part of a coral reef can be a fitting farewell.
There are also considerations of traditional cremation to keep in mind. Unless you want to bury the ashes of the deceased or keep them in an urn on the mantle, you will need to find someplace to lay those cremains to rest. Scattering isn’t always legal or ideal, so alternatives occasionally crop up to provide new opportunities.
Transform Yourself into Vinyl
Not everyone loves the sea or space or jewelry, which is why UK company Vinyly has come up with a new alternative to traditional burial or cremation. Thanks to technology that processes ashes and raw vinyl together, you can spend the rest of eternity as a record that can play any recording you like (music, vocal recording, or even silence) for a total of 24 minutes.
This online company comes with a fairly hefty price tag—in addition to regular cremation fees, the vinyl packages cost between $4,000 and $8,000. Not all the ashes can fit into one record, and the ashes are spread out over around 30 records, which can then be given to family members and friends.
Are You Ready to Become a Soundtrack?
Because Vinyly is a UK company, its services aren’t available everywhere. The United States, in particular, has strict regulations about how and where disposed remains can be used. There is also a certain amount of irreverence that accompanies this kind of burial method—it’s the kind of decision that might seem like fun at first, but can tax family members who don’t know what to do with the records or are upset by the accompanying soundtrack.
While you might not be ready to become a record, companies like Vinyly show that new burial options are arising on the funeral planning horizon every day. Death means different things to different people—and if music and whimsy are part of your life, you might find that they suit you in death, too.
Please share your thoughts on this article
Related articles
What Do Crematoriums/Funeral Homes do with Prosthetics?
During funeral planning, one of the things most families already know is that they’ll need to have devices like pacemakers removed before a loved one can be cremated. Any medical device with an electronic component (pacemakers, internal cardiac def... more »
Paying for a Parent’s Funeral
In cases where an individual did not make advance funeral plans, chances are fairly good that a spouse or adult child will be responsible for planning and financing the funeral. Long held as the custom across countries and cultures, the idea that a c... more »
When Should You Start Funeral Planning?
Because death can happen at any time, there is no “right” age at which to start funeral planning. Some people like to take care of their estate planning soon after they have children, and funeral planning is a big portion of that. Others wait unt... more »
