People love to spend money on things, sometimes they work.
To me the most obvious thing to clean a record with is something that it encounters quite often, and something designed to actually be used with the record: The Stylus
The Stylus (with a little help from some friends) is perfect and if you're worried about damaging your LP by playing it then you really do need to be thinking of optical ... and maybe even CD?
Anyway I digress
I started years ago (like in the 80's) playing my LP's "damp". Not so wet that water flings off, but not dry either. I'd add a small amount of plain fragrance free, uncoloured and unscented detergent to de-mineralised water (like 5ml to 150ml of water) and then carefully gently spray the LP (taking care not to spray the label to get a smooth surface coating on the LP but that doesn't pond.
I would do this with the LP on the platter and the platter turning. It became pretty obvious if there was too little or too much.
Then begin playing normally.
You'll also need a small soft but stiff bristle brush to gently wipe down the stylus because if you watch during this process you'll be stunned just how much comes out of the tracks and gathers on the stylus.
Lift the stylus up, move it away from the LP, gently in a rolling action designed to bring the bristles (side on) down the stylus as to wipe the gunk off the stylus.
I found on first plays of this with older LP's which were not always mine from new that this must be done a few times per side.
Added Benefits
Since there is moisture on the LP this brings another agent in contact with the stylus, which given its speed through the groove (about 20 inches per second at the outside and decreasing) and the pressure in PSI of the stylus on the vinyl (something like 50psi) some heat is inevitable ... so the water also acts as a cooling agent.
I have found that this method has greatly reduced the sound quality losses of my records over years of playing and indeed reduces the snap crackle and pop of playing.
HTH
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