Is Vinyl Making A Comeback?

This month's Forbes had an interesting article about the music industry, specifically that we seem to be in the midst of a mini-revival of LPs, records, and vinyl.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0718/life-vinyl…

Apparently our generation is uncomfortable with having our noise of choice in the form of intangible files a la iTunes and is embracing vinyl's sheer physical presence and better sound quality.

Of course, good luck telling us how much effort caring for and storing all those records will cost us. I know firsthand, having grown up in a household literally surrounded by shelves upon shelves of them.

The article points to the success of this year's Record Store Day, during which almost every major musician ever from Foo Fighters to Arcade Fire to Bruce Springsteen released a special vinyl-only album to heavy promotion. It got to the point where some of these vinyl-only releases charted in the top 40, leading some to think we could see the disappearance of the CD before losing vinyl, if at all.

I'm honestly skeptical about that conclusion; having one successful Record Store Day doesn't mean we're in an industry shift, any more than one hot IPO doesn't necessarily mean we're in a bubble. It isn't springtime for the music industry by any means, and vinyl is only 1% of music sales.

I do think there will always be that niche though, and probably the CD will follow suit. On a personal note, I find it encouraging that the remaining record stores aren't only for aging hippies anymore, but people like us keeping the tradition alive.

With that, are there any proud record-buyers in the house? Can the industry build on this success? Or are we doomed to own simply a collection of files, leaving our piles of CDs and LPs to be tended by a dedicated few?

 

I'm as nostalgic as the next guy (first album I ever bought with my own money: Michael Jackson's Off The Wall in 1979, and I had more 45 singles than I could count) but no one could ever say that vinyl sound quality is better, or even on par with, digital sound quality. It's not even close.

I bought my first CD player in 1986, and was the first of my friends to have one. It was night and day between CD and vinyl. I remember one of the first CD's I bought was Invisible Touch by Genesis, and Phil Collins's drum solos were like nothing I'd ever heard before on a stereo.

Can't see vinyl making a comeback.

 
Best Response
Edmundo Braverman:
I'm as nostalgic as the next guy (first album I ever bought with my own money: Michael Jackson's Off The Wall in 1979, and I had more 45 singles than I could count) but no one could ever say that vinyl sound quality is better, or even on par with, digital sound quality. It's not even close.

I bought my first CD player in 1986, and was the first of my friends to have one. It was night and day between CD and vinyl. I remember one of the first CD's I bought was Invisible Touch by Genesis, and Phil Collins's drum solos were like nothing I'd ever heard before on a stereo.

Can't see vinyl making a comeback.

That's odd, because almost everyone who buys vinyl insists that it sounds better than anything else. I don't focus on production quality that much, but I have listened to both and think vinyl has a warmer, more organic, fuller sound. MP3s sound as if the band was stuffed into a tin can by comparison.

Genesis? I have been a big fan of them since the release of their 1980 album Duke...ah, never mind, it's too early and it's been done too many times. ;)

Metal. Music. Life. www.headofmetal.com
 
In The Flesh:
That's odd, because almost everyone who buys vinyl insists that it sounds better than anything else.

It's not about the sound quality, more the experience, if that makes sense. I wouldn't listen to the Foo Fighters or Rage on vinyl, but the Beatles, Stones, etc, I'll take vinyl over digital any day

"You stop being an asshole when it sucks to be you." -IlliniProgrammer "Your grammar made me wish I'd been aborted." -happypantsmcgee
 
Edmundo Braverman:
I remember one of the first CD's I bought was Invisible Touch by Genesis.

Speaking of Genesis, I just recently got their "Live Over Europe" two-CD set from their reunion tour. Great mix of the pop stuff and the proggy stuff, and very well mixed also.

Metal. Music. Life. www.headofmetal.com
 

I agree with Ed. Doubt it's making a comeback. I think people are just buying it for nostalgia/wall decoration.

I think sound quality is about the same, but only if the vinyl is new. I've listened on and off to dance music on vinyl for a few years now, and I've yet to meet someone that can reliably tell whether the medium is vinyl or digital without looking at the player.

You can sometimes tell the difference on the same song on a worn vinyl because they sound is different. Also unclean/scratched vinyl crackles. The sound quality also seems to deteriorate over time, which makes sense, because of the friction and decay of the record over time.

 

I blame hipsters.

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 
Oreos:
I blame hipsters.

This analysis right here is pretty spot on. As for the "audiophiles"...isn't referring to yourself as an "audiophile" pretty damn hipsterish?

"For I am a sinner in the hands of an angry God. Bloody Mary full of vodka, blessed are you among cocktails. Pray for me now and at the hour of my death, which I hope is soon. Amen."
 
duffmt6:
Oreos:
I blame hipsters.

This analysis right here is pretty spot on. As for the "audiophiles"...isn't referring to yourself as an "audiophile" pretty damn hipsterish?

Not at all: people who like music =/= hipster, no?
Get busy living
 

Vinyl came back years ago. It's very common for white bands to put albums out on vinyl and digital formats. I was actually surprised that you didn’t know this – until I realized that you fellas get your music news from Forbes.

 

People buy vinyl records because they have a large physical presence. I own a copy of Live like a Suicide for the reason that it's rare, and it looks cool. I could get the songs on CD...hell they are all on GN'R Lies. If I had more $$$ to throw around, I wouldn't be opposed to buying more vinyl. It makes music listening more of an experience than the causal flipping I do daily on the iPod and like I said...I think LPs look better on a wal than any other form of music.

Reality hits you hard, bro...
 

It's not just the hipsters. If you ask true audiophiles, Vinyl actually sounds a lot better for music that predates Digital Recording Technology. Once the music industry starting moving from a fully analog master to a partially digital and then full on digital setup in the studio, the need for analog playback mediums really just dwindled. The reality is, it all depends on when the recording in question was made. The true benefit to Vinyl is that when you have Analog Masters, they sound infinitely better on Vinyl because Vinyl is an Analog medium and you lose less of the audio quality when transferring it from the master to the Vinyl press. Now a day, the only truly high quality music left is the uncompressed masters and music provided in raw, uncompressed digital formats.

Vinyl still has its uses though (DJs that spin Hip Hop and dance music, collectors, hipsters and audiophiles), but it's not going to make a major comeback.

 

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