Vinyl records mount comeback

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1703960740001/vinyl-records-mount-comeback/

Not really news, but I hope this trend continues. Though I know some here oppose physical formats, especially vinyl because of the waste of resources... I think in the grand scheme of things, you might as well move out to the mountains if vinyl is a moral breaking point.

vinyl is not mounting a comeback

Increase in sales = coming back? You'll need to provide more evidence to counter the article/video.

lol evidence to counter fox news?

Some stores in Belgium have unexpectedly started stocking a bit of vinyl for some reason. Probably just a small fad though.

  On 7/3/2012 at 1:43 AM, goffer said:

lol evidence to counter fox news?

  Quote

As it turns out, overall album sales in the US did, remarkably, show a slight increase in 2011, but the more significant news at the moment pertains the sales of vinyl records, which have grown every year for the past six years and which increased by 25% in 2011, from 2.8 million in 2010 to 3.5 million.

http://www.tinymixta...ossibly-related

More:

Just because its fox news doesn't mean its inaccurate.

The fall of CDs is gonna mean people who want physical formats are switching to vinyl. Like I said, this isn't surprising and let's hope it continues because it is healthier for the music industry to have it around, I think.

they've been saying vinyl is making a comeback since 1992. it never fucking went away is the truth. never fucking will.

I could see it continuing this trend as people realize their only real choices now are digital files or vinyl. I think when someone really loves an album, they want to have the artwork and they want to experience it in a way that is different than clicking play on some files that may as well been illegally downloaded. I can also see video albums being more prevalent in the future because of mobile technology allowing things to be projected on surfaces. As it stands now mobile devices provide an okay experience for viewing video content, but its not social in the same way as plugging your iPod into your friends stereo to share a track.

I think we'll probably see innovations in cheaper, more interesting ways to produce physical albums, and that vinyl will also continue to exist and be sold (as bcm said). I won't be the one buying it, though.

As for a "come back," again, as bcm said, it never really went away. Never in the last 15 years have I had a hard time finding new vinyl releases, and I lived in Nebraska for 8 of those years.

  On 7/3/2012 at 2:43 AM, luke viia said:

I think we'll probably see innovations in cheaper, more interesting ways to produce physical albums, and that vinyl will also continue to exist and be sold (as bcm said). I won't be the one buying it, though.

 

As for a "come back," again, as bcm said, it never really went away. Never in the last 15 years have I had a hard time finding new vinyl releases, and I lived in Nebraska for 8 of those years.

Maybe I am just looking at this differently... but as the video stated around the late 70s is when vinyl peaked, and as the graph indicates above, sales are going back up. This is a come back. Maybe some new physical format will replace vinyl, but I find that concept a bit far off, or at least I can't imagine what digital physical format could possibly be better than portable flash drives.

Oh, sorry, wasn't saying that I think something will replace vinyl. As your link says, the demand is growing. I was just saying we never went through a vinyl drought of any sort (I know, that's kind of a moot point).

I do think you're on to something about "with the fall of CDs, people who are interested in a physical format will move to vinyl." That seems pretty likely.

I'm not even into vinyl because of audio fidelity or what not. I think it's a bit nicer sounding, but I am aware that the differences are probably placebo. What I do like about vinyl is 1) the artwork... way nicer than looking at stuff on a computer screen. 2) the inconvenience... having to flip records or change the needle is often too much too bother with, so in some ways this provides for a more relaxing listening experience. you drop the needle, you listen... there's no ADD involved. 3) browsing vinyl... I am more inclined to re-discover something I haven't heard in awhile if its physically sitting on my self and I scroll by it, then if its amongst thousands of files on my computer.

All interesting personal reasons for buying records. I don't buy into the idea that it gives a new/novel/deeper/more relaxing listening experience, because for me, it doesn't provide those things. I dunno if you want to turn this into a thread about why or why not to buy vinyl, so I'll just duck out now

  On 7/3/2012 at 3:00 AM, luke viia said:

Oh, sorry, wasn't saying that I think something will replace vinyl. As your link says, the demand is growing. I was just saying we never went through a vinyl drought of any sort (I know, that's kind of a moot point).

 

I do think you're on to something about "with the fall of CDs, people who are interested in a physical format will move to vinyl." That seems pretty likely.

Ah yeah I never meant vinyl was dead and is coming back from the dead. But that it simply did lose its kingship when cassette and CDs started to rise... but computer and digital files have proven to replace everything but vinyl. It's kind of interesting... how fast our media is moving away from physical formats, out of convenience... yet the convenience is making the value of media less monetarily because of the convenience of illegally downloading. Quantity over quality... but because there is no real monetary value in having "more", having a small collection of records might seemingly become more valued by individuals/groups. Like any average Joe can go onto a torrent and download 30,000 tracks in a week... but buying 300 records is something that shows more investment.

Yes, and then we have to ask ourselves, why make that investment? Who is it for?

  On 7/3/2012 at 3:12 AM, luke viia said:

All interesting personal reasons for buying records. I don't buy into the idea that it gives a new/novel/deeper/more relaxing listening experience, because for me, it doesn't provide those things. I dunno if you want to turn this into a thread about why or why not to buy vinyl, so I'll just duck out now

Well its subjective, so there's no right way to enjoy media. But from my experience, that is why I enjoy listening to records. And those reasons might be why vinyl is trending more again.

  On 7/3/2012 at 3:16 AM, luke viia said:

Yes, and then we have to ask ourselves, why make that investment? Who is it for?

I'm not sure I follow? Why buy something I enjoy in a format that offers a unique experience? I can also listen to the same album on my computer and sometimes I am more in the mood for that, even if I do own the record. But other times I'll just want to spin records and get away from the computer for a bit.

I was (in a veiled, stupid way) insinuating that buying 300 albums is largely a status investment for a lot of people, that's all.

Ah I see... thats a fair point. But I think where my perspective derives from is, do you enjoy having art in your physical surroundings? If not, might as well take a picture of all the paintings/photos/posters you have on your walls and just turn them into a slideshow on your desktop.

edit: @ Luke

Yeah, I have a couple paintings on the walls of my apt (just got this last week actually, it reminds me of ... a prehistoric apocalypse! sorry it's so fuzzy, took the pic just for this thread, hah)

and most of the album art on the vinyl I own... wouldn't be in my house if it had been sold as a print instead of an album. I understand that art adds something to the experience, but uh... rare is the album that has a stand-alone masterpiece for a cover...

  On 7/3/2012 at 4:14 AM, luke viia said:

Yeah, I have a couple paintings on the walls of my apt (just got this last week actually, it reminds me of ... a prehistoric apocalypse! sorry it's so fuzzy, took the pic just for this thread, hah)

 

and most of the album art on the vinyl I own... wouldn't be in my house if it had been sold as a print instead of an album. I understand that art adds something to the experience, but uh... rare is the album that has a stand-alone masterpiece for a cover...

Thats definitely a good point... the album artwork doesn't make or break the music, so naturally there can be amazing music with meh album artwork and vice versa. However I have typically found album artwork if done appropriately, adds atmosphere to the music and is also an easier way to distinguish the music than album names.

Awesome painting btw

agreed, album art can be fantastic. it's just not an integral part of digging on the tunes for me. a lot of the old country/folk and funk records I own and love have completely terrible artwork. I have three records of Roger Miller looking at me like I just called his mother a sultry monkey.

Yeah, but it's kind of saddening when that's the case. When the entire aesthetic holds cohesiveness and when each component adds depth, there's something magical about that. Which is why I can imagine the death of vinyl will be some form of easily projected visuals or virtual reality interfaces. That and a combination of generative music listening, something that Brian Eno has talked about... where subtleties of the music would be dynamic, so you would never hear the same track twice. It seems kind of ridiculous to some extent but, I think if the technology did exist... it would be fascinating to produce a track and be able to listen to how it might evolve through parameter adjustments. I guess it would be akin to composing a track, handing it over to a group of musicians and being able to infinitely hear them perform it live, giving them abstract inputs (translated by AI).

Hell yeah, I was gonna mention generative/dynamic music in an earlier post but didn't want to derail the discussion. The idea that the listener can help "compose" the album each time it plays (but doesn't have to actually change anything if they don't want) will be a really interesting development in distributed music, imo. The different ways artists will be able to incorporate that sort of thing will be fun to see.

I'm imagining a world in which OLEDs play back artist-made visualizations of the music and the listener can change parameters of the music as they go...

  On 7/3/2012 at 4:42 AM, luke viia said:

Hell yeah, I was gonna mention generative/dynamic music in an earlier post but didn't want to derail the discussion. The idea that the listener can help "compose" the album each time it plays (but doesn't have to actually change anything if they don't want) will be a really interesting development in distributed music, imo. The different ways artists will be able to incorporate that sort of thing will be fun to see.

 

I'm imagining a world in which OLEDs play back artist-made visualizations of the music and the listener can change parameters of the music as they go...

indeed!

Furthermore, if some kind of virtual reality tech comes to fruition, one could theoretically combine mind altering effects and record their personal visualizations to share with others, to which they would be able to generatively adjust them, as well as the music.

Weird days ahead.