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Vinyl Records Continue to Thrive Thanks to Music Consumers
by David Stack
posted on November 2, 2008

Vinyl records are a form of gramophone record that was stamped from a lump of polyvinyl chloride. Yes, you are right: they are bulky, and almost grandfatherly in their own fashion. At this day and age of iPod Nanos and digital downloads, vinyl records sound like really old music technology.

Or do they?

Thanks to die-hard music consumers, indie collectors, baby boomers, and audiophiles, sales of rare vinyl records, 7-inch singles, and new vinyl records have been experiencing a significant increase. More artists are recording songs in digital but delivering them in analog; more major labels are producing albums and releasing them on vinyl; more music retailers are rolling out vinyl records in their stores; and more websites are promoting and selling vinyl records online. There are numbers that prove this resurgence. Last year alone, the manufacturers' shipments of vinyl LPs reached more than 1.3 million, up by 36.6 percent from the previous year (according to the Recording Industry Association of America). And this doesn't even reflect the sales figures from independent stores and small dance shops.

One of the reasons why vinyl records are once again gaining popularity in the mainstream is its sonic advantage over CDs and other formats in which music comes. They simply sound better. While music in digital format –such as in CDs and MP3s– can have a wider dynamic range, the compression that is required to allow the loudness weakens the sound quality as well. On the other hand, the audio on vinyl records cannot be compressed to that extent – which is why the sound coming from these big discs are more precise, more nuanced, more natural, and more continuous. Warmer, purer, richer. Well - “truer” is the adjective that vinyl records advocates use.

Another factor why there suddenly is a rise in the demand for vinyl records is nostalgia. Even turntables are making a comeback. “With vinyl records, it's just a completely different experience,” says Paul Fredericks, a British audiophile who began collecting vinyl records in the late 1960s. “It can in many colors and designs, there's always something special about it, you can hold up the record, feel it, read all kinds of information about the artist and the label and the singles, and you can put it on the spool and watch it drop down to the turntable.” Indeed, putting the needle on the vinyl record allows for a much more vivid sensory experience than does clicking on the buttons of an iPod.

Music Stack is an online music retailer that helps music consumers and audiophiles find vinyl records online, as well as rare LPs, rare CDs, used vinyl records, out-of-print records and albums. Established in 1997, the website is a music shopping online portal for over 3,500 music stores from all over the world.

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