For a very long time, vinyls played a huge role in distributing music into the comforts of everyone’s homes, that is until smaller music-playing objects like cassette tapes and digital CD players were introduced in the late part of the 20th century. As of late, the vintage objects, which are known to sound the closest to a live set, have made a comeback after sugaring popularity driven by the music community that brought back vinyls. What started as a niche group romanticizing the past has now gone on to overtake album sales in the previous, per Independent.
Ten years ago, people were trying to get rid of their reeking record collections for pennies on the streets and online. Now, vinyls are hot yet again for their sound quality, physical appeal, and value. When your buddies are over, it’s a cool way to set up a record physically, put the needle on the scratched lines over the circular pan and let the deck do its magic. Compared to that action, playing a recently liked song from Spotify through your JBL Flip 5 seems a bit mundane.
As music lovers search for higher-quality sounds, their hunt is delayed as Spotify and Apple Music keep delaying their HiFi quality updates. Meanwhile, their competitors like Deezer are up to date with the latest technology. Nevertheless, the biggest reason why vinyl sales are booming is because of people gifting each other and choosing vinyls as the best option. According to The Entertainment Retailers Association, vinyl sales earned the record industry £2.4m in week 48 while downloads took in £2.1m.
A representative from ERA has said “This is yet further evidence of the ability of music fans to surprise us all,” ERA chief Kim Bayley said in a statement. “It’s not so long ago that digital download was meant to be the future. Few would have predicted that an album format, first invented in 1948 and based on stamping a groove into a piece of plastic, would now be outselling.”
Now labels are increasing their vinyl records as fans are eager to get their hands on their favorite band’s vinyl. Ultimately, it’s the tangible and physical quality that is attractive to the consumers, something that streaming services cannot provide.
