Interesting piece from The Week suggests there is something strange happening with the uptake in LP sales, witnessed while other media show diminishing numbers. Of course, the numbers are not that impressive in absolute terms but I do think there is something in the material pleasure of a record and its sleeve that adds to the experience of ownership and use. The ritual of playing music on a turntable may not be as convenient as iTunes but it does involve you in the moment. Anyway, its interesting to see this story run and run.
3 comments:
And this trend is driven by the young who grew up with crap downloads and MP3s. For them, vinyl is a revelation. They're experiencing the dimensionality, warmth and spatial information that the LP is all about for the first time! For every new record release be it download or CD, there is almost always a vinyl release as well. Over 170 million new LPs were sold in 2013, and that doesn't count used vinyl sales obviously.
It has very little to do with the 'materical pleasure of owning a vinyl disc' and everything to do with the Sonic realism of analog.
Open Reel analog tape, although inconvenient, can take you even further in the same direction.
Where does the "over 170 million new LP's sold in 2013" information come from?? This article (and others) point to under 10 million worldwide, even Michael Fremer can come up with only 30 million using some very questionable extrapolations?
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