Why vinyl records survive in the digital age

Just remember, the 'net is global. The US alone has a population of over 330 million people. When you open up something to “the world”, the numbers can look huge… even if that something originated at your desk over a few beers.

Mass marketers got this a long time ago. Ever wonder why an entertainer can get so wealthy so fast? Why even a “bad” movie can make money? Why one ticked-off knuckle head in each city can make an army? Why one talking head on a “news” program can scare the bejeezus out of folks everywhere from one event someplace somewhere?

Peace
Bruce in Philly

I moved my vinyl playback from my system for over a year and a half for the same reason, not enough space on shelves. And I didn’t miss it much. But now that it is back and wowing me it won’t move again!

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None of that has anything to do with any of it.

Walmart isn’t a measure for anything, especially anything audio related.

Vinyl is NOT just for “vintage collectors and romantics”.

People who say these sort of things have never heard vinyl on a properly dialed in rig. With the right table, tonearm, cartridge and even more importantly, the right stylus, you get nearly zero surface noise.

I know I don’t get any surface noise in my setup. In fact, as far as “quietness” and “blackness” is concerned, you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between my vinyl and digital.

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I’m a young’un - growing up my parents didn’t have a turntable, and my first music was on CD, later I acquired music through digital means, and now it’s all streaming.

Around 2 years ago I bought a turntable and I love it. I found music more engaging on LP. Because of the ritual, or the tactility or what have you I was listening to my music more deeply and much more fully. I was enjoying more nuance, and that makes for a lovely experience.

However, I was spending far too much on records and was completely wrecking my budget, so I stopped buying albums on vinyl. Back to streaming I went.

With that said vinyl still serves a couple important purpose for me. First off, after shows I buy the album. It serves as a pleasant physical reminder of a great night.

Also, as a millennial so much of my life has been shared and experienced through digital means. Growing up, physical things were generally only important to me in that they let me access digital things. Nowadays having a record collection shows who I am, similar to my bookshelf loaded up with books that have been important to me through my life.

And probably the most important reason… I’ve been record shopping with my parents, and that experience is one I hold dear. Seeing them get excited about albums they used to listen to and now having those same albums on my shelf means more to me than any digital album ever will.

I don’t think digital or vinyl is better or worse than one or the other since in my book they’re almost filling two different purposes, if that makes sense.

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There is a difference between a “Democracy” and a “Republic”. In the old days, they used to call Democracy a “Mob-racracy”.

Vinyl up 8%, highest sales since 1988. Approaching CD sales. I guess this is a fad with legs.

RIAA (Record Industry Association of America) releases its report for 2018 - streaming taking 75% of all revenue:

  • Streaming subscriptions $4.7B (+33%) [50m users]
  • Digital downloading $1.04B (down 6 years in a row)
  • CD sales $698M (-34%)
  • Vinyl records $419M (+8%) [highest since '88]
  • music videos $28M (-28%)
  • cassettes, etc $9.6M (-22%)

Excellent sentiment.

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In THIS case I like the “Mob-racracy” :slight_smile:

More news about the growth of vinyl and the music recording business more generally