I’ve been tracking this trend for a while, the resurgence of vinyl. I find it intriguing. Not long ago, vinyl was presumed as dead as the 8 track. While there was always a market for used and vintage vinyl among the hardcore collectors, the appreciation for analog has now crossed over to the younger generation and more casual listener. Now record shops, vinyl record shops, are back en vogue and popping up everywhere.
It got me curious to know what’s behind all this. Is vinyl a fad that will fade or is it here to stay? Is it any coincidence that as the CD has died, vinyl as re-emerged in it’s place? As much as we love the convenience of digital music, do we – at the end of the day – need something to hold and touch? Or is it the music industry that needs a physical format? Does analog truly sound better than digital? Or is being a vinyl lover just a way to differentiate yourself from the music masses?
I decided to ask the experts and have gathered perspectives from a cross section of industries and disciplines. Over the next few days, you’ll hear opinions on the subject from:
- The Acoustics Expert: John Dahl of THX
- The Vinyl Expert: Vince Slusarz of Gotta Groove Records.
- The Music Industry Expert: Shamal Ranasinghe of Topspin
- The Marketing and Trends Guru: Seth Godin
It was a fun project and I hope you enjoy the series and their perspectives. And please, chime in and tell us what you think.
the OCMD 
This whole Vinyl thing has been pretty popular with the “hipster” types for a while now. I was at a local used electronics shop last week, and while speaking with the owner he told me that all the record players were being purchased by “them young kids”. He said it was hard to keep them on the shelves. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Obviously the argument here is that the music sounds way better, the way it was meant to be heard. You cannot buy one track and skip the rest, you listen to the whole album the way the artist intended.
I do wonder though, if the cost of said vinyl is keeping people from purchasing them in today’s economy. The last album I bought was $17.99 kinda expensive in my opinion.
X’s and O’s versus analog. The analog captures more sounds. I’ll take the vinyl wherever I can get it. A great place to find it is at GEMM.com . GEMM was the first marketplace on the internet, and mainly devoted to buyers and sellers of music related items.