Sound right before song begins on vinyl, what is it?

We store master tape with the tales out (ending of tape to the outside of the reel) to keep this effect to a minimum. It's unavoidable but this helps.  At least you know you are getting a 100% analog recording.  

I remember back in the tape days, a rule of thumb was to never use fast-forward or rewind before storing your just-played tape. just let it keep playing 'till the end. Don't remember why, exactly. But it was a rule for hard-cores.

I'm going to have to pay more attention the next time I hear this phenomenon to measure the duration etc. It makes the most sense to me to think that this is a tape related problem. I have trouble understanding how the vinyl flaws could sound the way this does. I'm not saying anything is wrong, I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. Interesting stuff. Thanks all.

Truth is that that "ghost" signal that is heard on some vinyl recordings can be easily removed during the editing process both in an analogue way [ splice a section of clean tape at that point ] or a digital way [ simply find the annoying section and hit delete]. It would be interesting to know the age of the recordings in question as editing techniques have changed and improved.  I would imagine that recordings made before the use of magnetic tape would not exhibit this characteristic ?  I'll pay more attention in my future listening sessions !

@nubiann    +1

I've heard this on d2d recordings as well. No tape involved.