OFF THE RECORD! - Vinyls revival

Leading up to Record Store Day (April 21st), it seems appropriate to look at the new trend regenerating record sales to the highest sales for vinyl in 17 years! 12 years in a row, vinyl sales have risen. We can see it in our store, customers young and old scrolling through our vinyl selection. Titles new and old are getting pressed and the demand is higher than ever.

My personal history with vinyl: I’m 22 and I started buying when I was 16. I would catch a bus to the city, spend the day walking to the few record stores that still remain. With the pocket money I had, I would purchase a record a week. Spending the other 6 days listening to the record on repeat. This grew my love for music. Listening over and over I discovered more about the record, the lyrics and the production. Something that I was never able to do with an MP3.

So who is buying records? In-store we are seeing young and old scrolling through our titles. With the youth being the most excited about seeing their favourite titles. From Marvin Gaye to Katy Perry, vinyl numbers are growing for classics and even the most current records. With The Beatles taking out the number 1 and 2 spot for vinyl sales last year, Guardians of the Galaxy and Ed Sheeran took out 3 and 4. Showing just how widespread the demand for titles is.

So what is drawing the customers to the old format? With the world at our fingertips, unlimited songs in our pocket and the ease of listening anywhere.

Why? Are we simply not enjoying it anymore?

Sitting down and listening to an album in its entirety has become a luxury for some reason. We are all in a rush to play the best of or skip through only half a track. Growing up through an Aux chord / Bluetooth generation, this was definitely the case. The trend we are seeing now is everyone wanting to sit back, relax and enjoy the whole vinyl as intended by the artist.

Now for the quality; vinyl is uncompressed! This is one of the main reasons customers love their vinyl so much. On a great system, the warmth and clarity of vinyl are hard to match. But is analogue technology that has been around for 6 decades really better than music downloaded today?

The sound is as good as its weakest link! (One of the most important lines in Hi-Fi)

Vinyl is uncompressed. No quality is lost in the production process. This allows every detailed sound and harmonic to be reproduced, where MP3’s and many other audio files compress the recording. This results in a loss of quality and frequency response.

April 21st is Record Store Day, in-store we will have live music, food and of course vinyl. For all you vinyl enthusiasts we will have limited edition vinyl from picture discs to 180g audiophile pressings. Are you interested in starting a turntable system? Looking to upgrade? Have no idea? We understand! For anyone looking to start a home turntable system, we will have staff on all day ready to help with suggestions or options on how to get started. Join the cult and get back to listening to music the traditional way.