Vinyl: Collecting Sounds
Record collecting has surged back into the limelight in the past decade, and the industry is about to overtake CDs in terms of sales. Why is this happening? CDs are certainly more cost-effective. Records are double and sometimes triple the cost of a CD album; they’re also harder to store, and if you want a record player setup that makes it worth it, you’re going to be spending a couple of paychecks.
But for most people, the pros outweigh the cons. They have more resalability than your average CD, often because they’re limited in their production and leagues more collectible. They are also customizable for the artist of the album. They can express themselves on every aspect of a record. First of all, your album cover is a 12-inch gatefold, and sometimes even an alternative cover, which can be displayed proudly in a collection. Secondly, records can be produced in any color the label chooses, such as opaque red, pale purple, or transparent blue, often the artists’ choice. They can sometimes even put pictures on the record itself. Thirdly, they can put full 12-inch prints inside the album cover, unlike CD’s where you might get a folded up and creased ten-inch poster if you’re lucky.
But why would you buy a record for $20+ when you could literally listen to the album for free on your phone. Well, first of all, records don’t have ads, obviously. Second, while some people think the PVC that records are made with is worse for the planet, digital albums are hosted from servers, leaving a larger carbon footprint. Third, today’s average album is about an hour-long, and recent studies from 2019 have shown people listen to 27 hours of music per week. I’m sure if you find a really good album, you’re going to be replaying songs from it for weeks to come. You only have to play a digital album 27 times before you’ve created a larger carbon print than if you’d simply bought the vinyl.
So, now we have established they aren’t nearly the worst environmental option. Why else are people collecting records? I mean, let’s be honest, most people don’t think about the environment when they buy something, and definitely not when they’re listening to a digital album. Although I may be a little biased, considering I am a record collector, I did a lot of this research before I started collecting. I want to say my opinion nonetheless. An LP (Long Playing record, or as most of you know them to be the standard 12-inch record) is sort of a time capsule. Not only are you buying the record, but you’re also buying the ritual that comes with it. You put more care into it, and it often pushes you to listen more intimately to the music. This is something that doesn’t require Wi-Fi, something that generations down the line can still enjoy with that same ritualistic style. It can’t be digitally censored or deleted off of Spotify. Nor will you have to listen to seventeen minutes of ads for Spotify Premium after every song.
It's especially fun to go to a record shop, dig for old albums you may never have heard of, and solely buy it for its incredible album cover. You might find old artists you never would’ve heard of. Or maybe you can find a classic hiding in the mix, someone your parents used to listen to, that you haven’t heard much of.
Music is something that most people are oversaturated with lately. Not long ago, the songs on the radio were what the majority of people listened to. Now, there are dozens of music streaming apps, like the aforementioned Spotify, Soundcloud, and Pandora. People take music for granted nowadays and often don’t actually process the music they listen to. They don’t hear the artist’s words. They hear his sounds. They don’t quite appreciate how hard the album was to put together.
My point is, when you buy an album on vinyl, you tend to enjoy it more thoroughly than if you’d simply streamed it. It’s easy to forget how special music is sometimes and how much it helps us or brings us back to a memory. On vinyl, you not only are reminded of the music’s power and of the nostalgia you may have for a song, but you also begin to make those memories all over again.
