Why Are Vinyl Records Becoming Popular Again?

There are many reasons why vinyl records have seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years. Factors like their collectability, sound quality, design, and even nostalgia play a key role in music lovers gravitating to them as a way of enjoying their favourite music. 

Now, the preference for sound quality between a physical form of music such as a vinyl record and a digital form (like an mp3 file on a smartphone, for example) can be a controversial topic. 

There will be many music fans out there who will tell you that the warm tones and subtle imperfections of a vinyl record are far superior to an electronically and precisely remastered digital equivalent, particularly for music released before the turn of the millennium. 

During that era, songs and albums were recorded with the sole intention of being released on vinyl (as listening through other forms was simply not an option), and so many will argue that to listen to a vinyl record is to engage with the music the way that the artist initially intended.

This is a point that has become more and more relevant in recent years for a few reasons. Many modern releases in particular will often be issued in a variety of colours, designs or even shapes. 

It is these sorts of multi-variant releases that make collecting your favourite music even more interesting. Do you have the standard black vinyl release, or have you managed to get your hands on the numbered, blue splatter release – for example.

Collectability as a reason for vinyl’s resurgence can absolutely also include older releases, too. Just take for example the millions of Beatles fans around the world, many of whom who just need to get their hands on a first press release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band because of its rarity and collectability. 

Being a large, tangible music medium with often iconic artwork only adds to the reasons that people are flocking back to them as a music medium. Proudly showing off your favourite releases as display pieces is incredibly easy to do, and makes for an incredible conversation starter when other people see what you own. 

Getting to pick up, feel, and sometimes even smell a record can be an incredibly powerful experience. Perhaps an album’s artwork will bring back certain memories, or even remind you of similar albums that you love listening to – it is this very tactile experience that people adore and is something that simply doesn’t happen in the same way in the digital world.

People love listening to music together regardless of what format it’s in, but the art of sharing physical music with other people is only getting stronger. Some bars and cafes will even host ‘vinyl night’ events where members of the community can come in and play records from their own collections. 

People love to share their collections with others as well, even having an album playing in the background of a casual get-together can spark up a conversation that can lead to new music discovery…  

I can’t express how many times I’ve picked up an old record in my own collection and then gone on to discover other albums by the same artist – or maybe I have put a record on my player to listen to a specific song, only to have an “I had no idea this artist did a cover of that song” moment when seeing the following song on the tracklist. 

Even away from home, places like record stores are built to enhance (and often rely on) this feeling of discovery – just look at how these environments categorise their stock. Seeing a ‘New Releases’ or ‘Rarities’ section piques our interest and makes us feel like we could be about to discover something potentially game-changing. 

In our current digital age, it is only reasonable to accept that the majority of music consumption comes from streaming and other on-demand services. The thing is, there has been lots of recent discussion as to whether this is an effective way of supporting the artists that you admire most. 

In fact, in 2022, artists in the USA collectively earned $12 million more from the sales of vinyl records than they did compared to stream-based revenue. Bearing in mind that on average, artists are paid an average of between $0.003 and $0.005 per stream – so they would have to have listeners in their millions for it to actually become a viable source of income for them. 

Compare this with the same artists receiving between 10% and 15% of the revenue of each vinyl record sold – and the difference is night and day. 

Probably the most influential factor on this list. It’s super simple, people LOVE to reminisce about how they felt, where they were, or even who they were with when they hear a specific song (or even an entire album).

Nostalgia plays a huge role in the choices we make in today’s society, and being able to buy a piece of tangible music that looks like it’s from a time when things were simpler, and when more care and attention to detail was put into its manufacture can be incredibly powerful.   

Much like our point on collectability, nostalgia is multi-faceted in this sense – as people of an older generation are looking to once again hear the original music that they heard from their youth, whilst at the same time those younger amongst us are getting their hands on vinyl records in the form of various re-releases from artists who may have only initially issued their music on CD, for example.