The vinyl revolution is so well established that it is almost old hat. Even Sainsburys sells vinyl. I sold all my vinyl about 20 years ago and made the leap to CDs. Since then I have bought a lot more CDs - a lot. So I have some thoughts about this vinyl resurgence...
Vinyl is pretty
No question. It really is. The thrill of opening up a nice gatefold, especially if new with that new smell, is indescribable. A well presented 12" is a piece of art.
Vinyl has old school cache value
There are associations to records that you just don't get with CDs, or even other formats - now mostly obsolete. Picturing someone with a bunch of records under the arm is just innately cooler than picturing them with a clutch of CDs.
And then there is the theatre of selecting the record...
There is a large stock of cheap old vinyl
People have begun to twig onto this (I saw one guy on Facebook trying to sell his grandmother's James Last records for a tenner!) but there are a lot of old records, still in decent condition, kicking around for very little money. If you don't care about buying new, vinyl is a fast way to get a decent collection on the cheap.
Vinyl may sound better than CDs (See below)
I cast doubt on this below, but certainly back in the 80s, vinyl sounded clearly better than CDs, which sounded thin and unconvincing. People suggest that there is a greater warmth to vinyl. Maybe...
However,
Vinyl is big
Records take up a lot of space. In terms of length and breadth, you can get four CDs in the space you can a record.
Vinyl is bulky
Moving house with my collection is a nightmare. The CDs take about 30 banana-boxes, which thankfully stack quite well. Vinyl is much heavier. I don't know how many boxes I would need, but I am confident in saying more, many more.
Vinyl is vulnerable
People made exaggerated claims about the invulnerability of CDs when they came out. You can fuck up a CD. However, not like you can fuck up a record. Back when I played records regularly, I remember ruining a few with the slightest errors of judgement. A house party was like a zombie apocalypse for records.
Vinyl is forcing record buyers to rebuy what they already have
OK, the record industry has been doing this for a while. How many CD editions are there of 'Kind of Blue' or 'Dark Side of the Moon'? But if you already have a decent edition of an album on CD, why buy it again on vinyl?
Vinyl typically offers the buyer a less good deal
A case in point. Numero recently produced an excellent compilation, Basement Beehives, charting obscure girl group records from the 60s. The vinyl edition was a double album with 28 tracks. The CD edition was cheaper and had all those 28 tracks, plus 28 more. Again, the Rhino vinyl reissue of 1968 compilation What is Soul? had the original 12 tracks. The CD edition, again cheaper, had an additional 14 tracks (all excellent, by the way, and making it my #1 recommendation for a single disk 60s soul compilation).
Vinyl is wildly over-priced.
Records are, if you are buying new, off-puttingly expensive. A ridiculous example: I was in Sainsburys. They had Chas and Dave's Gold, a shameless cash in on the sad death of Chas, on both vinyl and CD. The CD edition had three disks and cost £5. The vinyl edition was a single disk and was £18. That is a particularly egregious example, but look at record store day or any new crop of releases and ask yourself whether £18-£25 is a good price compared to the price of a CD.
Vinyl rarely, if ever, sounds better
All of this might be understandable if vinyl was clearly a better representation of the music. If you popped on a record and the music was richer, clearer, lovelier etc., then the fragility, cumbersomeness, and cost would be worth it. However, it doesn't - at least not in the majority of cases.
I said above that in the 80s vinyl did sound better and that is incontestable. However, CD technology has come on a LOT. Where they were thin sounding, they now - assuming a nice mastering job - sound rich, and so on. It is possible that records do still sound better but only under conditions out of reach for most record buyers. If you have a very good hifi and a very good set of speakers and perhaps a very good pair of ears, then maybe they sound better. But if you're playing on an average High Street stereo, I seriously doubt it
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