Keeping a record part 3

Just over 41 million vinyl records were sold in 2022, to the tune of $1.2bn (£.99bn). Only 33 million CDs were sold, amounting to $483m. This was the first time since 1987 that this has happened. Believe it or not physical copies of music continue to outsell digital downloads which definitely surprised me when I read about it. 

So why? Why has vinyl come back with such a vengeance? 

According to vinylrevival.com.au one reason is that handling something tangible makes us feel more present with the music. From taking it out of the sleeve to dropping the needle. I reckon there’s some truth in that. 

I also think, as a species, many of us naturally like to accumulate things. For example I live in a house with a wife and two daughters but for some crazy reason we have at least 30 odd ceramic mugs in the cupboard. Now you might say, “hey IRO you prick what about guests who might like a cuppa”? To that I say, I’ve never had 20 odd guests at once and if I did that’d be a party and I wouldn’t be serving tea I’d be serving bottles of beer and glasses of wine. 

My point is we seem to want things around us. Some things we need and and other things we just like to have like indoor plants, candles, instruments, statuettes and even miniature soldiers. 

A lot of us hang onto things for sentimental reasons too. This is an interesting one to me because I don’t think I’m overly sentimental. My wife still has her wedding dress but I didn’t keep my suit for example but I’ve got my grandads pipe, my mums bracelet and a few other bits and bobs from the kids etc. Generally though I don’t like hanging on to stuff just for the sake of it. 

As I spent the first twenty years of my life without internet and downloading etc and then the second 20 odd years with all the modern technologies at my disposal it’s left me in a juxtaposition of sorts. I partly want to de-clutter my life but now I love the idea of having a vinyl collection. Always caught in the middle somewhere of being minimalist and being a collector. 

I’d pretty much put money down that a lot of the vinyl, these days, are being bought by people in my age bracket, roughly. Maybe people 35 and up who still remember tangible music before the digital age really kicked off. I think, just like me, people would be scouring eBay looking for vinyl, or rummaging through display boxes at bricks and mortar record shops on the hunt for their preferred music. People in my demographic may have a bit more disposable cash too so they can afford the occasional vinyl splurge here and there. I also think hipsters would be buying vinyl because it’s cool, unique-ish and yep very “hipster”. I’m generalising, obviously, but also speculating. 

Oh hang on, that’s me (kinda. Got the turntable) haha.

Whatever the reason, I think it’s super cool that there’s been such a resurgence in vinyl records. The anarchist in me, the anti-technology guy, the rage against the machine punk (the machine being streaming and apps bla bla bla), the grumpy old man haha is absolutely waving the flag for tangible music. 

Just for the record, and to prove a point here, I made this meme. See what I mean?

One other really good reason to buy a vinyl record is that the musician, the artist, gets more coin than he/she does from a download. If we want great music to be put out by great musicians we need to pay for the privilege and for me that’s a very small price to pay to keep music alive. 

Cheers

IRO