Vinyl is back

Over the past few years, vinyl record sales have made a significant comeback.  According to statistics published in a Cliché Magazine article back on July 26, 2017, consumers may have resurrected the vinyl era.

”According to Nielsen’s Year-End Report released earlier this year, vinyl LP sales reached 13 million last year,” The article states. “An all-time high since Nielsen started keeping track back in 1991.”

With this sudden rise in demand, stores like Barnes and Noble have started selling records and now, most of the new music you hear on the radio can also be purchased on Vinyl. In 2017 Sony (who had previously dumped vinyl records due to the fact that they felt the plastic disks were obsolete) also noticed the demand for vinyl records, and decided to start reproducing vinyl records.

So what’s the cause for this sudden resurgence? I feel that two important factors clearly stand out.

1. More and more kids these days tend to gravitate toward the emo/ hipster lifestyle, which generally leads them toward vinyl over digital music.

2. Probably the most obvious reason though has to be the sound quality. Digital sound simply can’t compete with the pure sound of Vinyl.  

There are also some not so obvious reasons for consumers to gravitate towards vinyl. In 2012 (my senior year of college) I was assigned to shoot and edit a video for my class. The topic/ subject(s) were of my choosing. Since I lived down the street from a tiny record store and had never gone inside of it, I figured that I would give it a shot.

Now, not all of the material that I collected made it through the editing stage, but both of the individuals that I interviewed said that they loved the fact that one could physically hold the record in their hand. You can also see the artwork and oftentimes read the song lyrics; if the lyrics come with the record, which isn’t always the case. This to me seems like a similar comparison to people who have refused to convert to kindles and tablets. Regardless of how many books they may hold, nothing beats physically turning the page of a book.

So why haven’t we heard about CD’s making a comeback? Most CD’s come with lyrics, artwork and you can physically hold a CD just like a vinyl record. Besides “pure sound quality” I would say it’s all about having to do everything yourself. You’re not just hitting a button on a tiny square box and shuffling through a laundry list of downloaded songs, or throwing a CD into your car or boom box and pressing play. I mean, I guess it can be that way if you get a very basic record player; but things like placing the needle on the record and adjusting pitch and tempo to your liking; those things matter to a lot of people. Essentially, listening to your music the way you want to listen to it.

I recently purchased my first record player, the Audio Technica AT-LP 120-USB, and it has to be one of the best investments I have ever made. I would recommend this model to any first-time record player buyers; and so would several reviews online that I have read. It’s very easy to use, yet you still get to physically place the needle on the record. There is also a weight in the very back of the needle arm which helps to adjust the weight displacement of the needle. It also has pitch adjustment and a lever to raise or lower the height of the needle arm.

With vinyl record sales continuing to rise I think it’s safe to say that vinyl has officially made it back, and won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

Work cited

https://www.clichemag.com/music/incredible-resurgence-record-players-vinyl/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR_WNdGhPK4