Tag Archives: vinyl

Vinyl’s Blast From the Past

For awhile, vinyl was sinking. Sales were dropping, plants were closing, and there wasn’t much of a demand for the vintage medium of playing music. Something happened in the past decade, however, which brought back the allure of the vinyl record. We can chalk it up to the stampede of the hipsters, but there arguably has to be some deeper lying meaning. There’s the argument of sound quality, which I talked about in an earlier post, but even that only speaks for the smaller community of audiophiles.

It can’t be the convenience of records that keep people buying. As Jim Farber from NY Daily News put it,

“They’re bulky to store, vulnerable to damage and a bitch to transport.”

Whatever the reason(s), it is happening, vinyl is making a comeback. It’s not like they’re in the running to overtake CDs or MP3s. They still only boast 1.4% of the market share, according to this article from Zumic. What catches the eye, though, is the consistent growth rate of record sales. Different studies show different numbers, but one thing is certain: people want more and more vinyl. Some may think the resurgence of vinyl is a nostalgia-fueled trend that will fade out, but since 2005 sales have been steadily increasing, and are expected to increase as much as 30% next year!

In a tactfully accurate metaphor, Mike Reid of Tiny Mixtapes said,

“Have vinyl record manufacturers felt the urge to contact their doctors yet? Because this commercial erection appears to be lasting way longer than four hours.”

No doctors need be contacted, though. The consequence of this rise in records comes in the form of dollar signs for vinyl manufacturers. If any concern is raised, it’s that there is such a high demand and not enough vinyl pressing plants. While a booming vinyl industry isn’t a bad thing, it is worth noting that there are only 16 vinyl pressing plants in the United States, as listed by TotalSonic.net.

It is by route of these pressing plants that the music industry has access to one of the most tangible forms of mass communication, the mass distribution of physical music. Each of these plants, color coded by region, don’t have to worry about not filling any certain quota. The number of records cranked out daily can easily daze. According to this article from Fox, Nashville’s United Record Pressing produces between 20,000 and 40,000 records a day!

Regardless of how many MP3s are being bought, or CDs produced, this one sample shows that vinyls aren’t a luxury or a small-time fad. Vince Slusarz owner of Gotta Groove Records, a vinyl plant in Cleveland, attributes the comeback of records to a fan’s desire for a physical representation of the music they love. In this video he talks about how MP3s are more accessible and portable than CDs, making CDs less needed, yet people still want something to hold onto. That is where records come into play. As far as ways of listening to music, nothing says, “I love this album,” like a grooved, vinyl disc.

It is almost as if vinyls go beyond aural art, and branch into visual art. Seeing record covers of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band,” and “Dark Side of the Moon,” hanging on someone’s wall really adds to their identity. At least more than CDs neatly stacked in a bookshelf would. That speaks to Slusarz’ claim that vinyl is the more desired physical representation of music (even if the numbers don’t quite back it).

Whatever the reason is for this comeback of vinyl, only time will tell where it goes. The trend is looking up for audiophiles and vinyl plants. May those of generations before let a joyful tear well up in their eye as they see the revival of the medium of music that they loved.

Thanks for reading.

What’s more important, audio quality or ease of access?

We live in a society of convenience. A convenient life is the life to live. But what about when it comes to audio quality of music? Does the warmth and naturalness of a vinyl outweigh the storage capacity and mobility of an MP3? Vinyl was overcome by the new technologies of cassette tapes. After that compact discs came along, and then of course the majestic MP3.

With each new form of technology released, two main things happened.

1. The amount of music able to be stored in a certain space drastically increased.

AND 

2. The audio quality of the music decreased.

I don’t want to spend a whole post comparing vinyls to CDs, not explicitly anyways. Rather, I want to dig into what holds more importance to listeners, audio quality, or ease of access?

First, the argument that older means of listening yields higher quality listening is often debated. Whether it be CDs versus MP3s, or vinyls versus CDs, or the current argument of vinyls versus MP3s, there is not a lack of opinions on the matter.

In mass music promotion, there is an obvious advantage of packing as many songs as possible into a given device. The smaller the file, the easier it is to spread around the internet. That comes at the expense of sound quality, which is a complex topic involving data rates, but do people really care?

Quora hosted a discussion on the matter. The consensus seems to be something along the lines of, “We love listening to higher quality audio, but we would rather listen to lower quality music if it hosts a better selection or convenience.”

In his comment, fellow blogger Ethan Hein said,

“He (engineer Paul Geluso) prefers big fancy speakers when they’re an option, but like me, he cares more about the content of the music than its presentation.”

On an audiophile site a poll was hosted asking if people prefer quality or convenience.

This multiple choice poll, which sparked a discussion, was posted on a site about audiophiles, so the participants are more than likely audio quality aficionados. The interesting thing is that, despite their bias, the majority of votes were for a mixture of convenience and quality. If audiophiles aren’t full steam ahead for the best quality of music, what does that say of the general public?

According to Mashable, vinyls, the kings of sound quality, have increased their sales by 17.7% in the past 2 years. Is it a hipster trend or a renaissance of audio quality? At the same time, digital downloads are still increasing so it’s not a tipping of the scales, but a battle of sound.

These graphs are a portion of a larger graphic created by MusicBed. Once again, I’m not trying to compare vinyls and MP3s, but these graphs show that there is a demand for the convenience of an MP3 and the audio quality/hipness/nostalgia of vinyl.

The topic of the resurgence of vinyl is a post by itself. But is there a chance that the spike in vinyl sales doesn’t have to do with trendiness, and people just want to hear the bright, detailed sounds that are lost by more compressed MP3 files? By the discussions so far, it seems like high fidelity listening is preferred, but if low quality music is more easily accessible (both in terms of the amount of music and the availability of listening), then listeners will sacrifice that crispness for more convenient listening.

What do you guys think?

Thanks for reading.