Henry.Fatih

I'm wondering if Vinyl is making a comeback, not for DJ'ing but for mellow listening. CD has it's advantages for the breath of practice track music out there. So, what do you think. I won't get offended.

Paedantic Basterd

Vinyl's doing quite well at the moment, and most independent record store owners are dropping CDs entirely from their stock in favour of vinyl sales.

Urban Hat€monger ?

Vinyl will only ever be a novelty for people with more money than sense that were not old enough to remember it the first time around.

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someonecompletelyrandom

Not if you like digging up old vinyl records from thrift shops. Sure you could visit rare music blogs where they've converted them to mp3 format, but there's nothing quite like finding something that nobody has given a single fuck about for 30 or 40 years and it actually being good stuff.

Holerbot6000

That's one of the many benefits of vinyl - finding things that were never, ever converted to a digital format. So many treasures out there in vinyl-only format and major kudos to those folks who take the time to make digital rips of those records for posterity.

I think it's great that vinyl and cassettes are making a come-back because they both have their merits as mediums and it is just one more thing that makes this such a great time to be a music fan. It's funny to read some of your posts talking about vinyl as a foreign, almost alien concept. Like, why did we ever bother with a medium that was so primitive?

I can't make an argument for vinyl that isn't entirely steeped in sentiment and nostalgia, since I grew up with the format and still hold it very dear. For me, it is the best physical format to service as an artifact, for those of us who still need physical artifacts in our lives. The fact that it is a bit of a bother and requires some effort and interaction though, is part of what makes it so special.

A record is comprised of sides and, back in the old days, musicians composed for those sides, intending each to be a statement and I find when I digest the music in that fashion, I am more inclined to pay closer attention to it, than I am a CD, which I can just stick into a slot and forget about. There is a sense of magic and ritual about carefully placing the needle on the record and curling up in front of the stereo with the record cover in your lap, ready to take it all in. It has my full and undivided attention, in a way that plopping five disks into the CD changer does not.

Again, though, these are just the musings of a misty middle-aged man and I don't mean to slight the digital age. CD's are a wonderful medium and digital downloads even better. Nowadays, I can save my fragile LP's for deep listening sessions, and still enjoy the same music in other formats while engaging in other activities. It's the best of both worlds, really.

I do hope the vinyl resurgence is not just a fad. I believe it shows that, even for the youth of today, there is a need for artifacts of substance, as romantic and impractical a notion as that can be; a little breeze of analog warmth from the past, as it were.

God bless music in all it's formats (except maybe 8-Track - that format was always kind of ridiculous - but I know it has it's fans and peace be with you too...)

Urban Hat€monger ?

I was talking about people who buy new releases on vinyl, Obviously if you're looking for obscure music from 40 years ago your choices of format are slightly limited.

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Paedantic Basterd

The collectors I know insist it's got a preferable "warm" sound to the recordings that I've never really discerned myself. Not that I've really tried. I can see the appeal in the size of the artwork though. I'd like to have a small collection of my favourite albums, if only to display the artwork.

Guybrush

This is pretty much what I'm trying to do with my vinyl collection.

I'm slowly legitimizing my library of illegally obtained music, one favourite at a time.

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Blarobbarg

I know many people who claim that vinyl sounds better than other ways to listen to music. My brother and a close friend of mine are both vinyl lovers. Personally, I find them to be more work than they're worth.

As for CD's, I use them constantly. I don't own a working MP3 player, so a CD is all I can use away from my computer.

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Guybrush

Vinyls are definitely more work than they are worth when it comes to general listening. They make for some very nice collectors items though.

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