The Rise of Vinyl: Choice & Intentionality
(3 min read)
For the first time in nearly 30 years, CD sales have been eclipsed by vinyl sales. The mid-year 2020 RIAA Revenue Statistics report as shared by CNN Business shows a predictable increase in streaming, but vinyl taking 62% of the physical product pie is certainly a surprise for many. Though 2020 has virtually decimated the music industry as we know it, this is welcome news for vinyl fans and appreciators of the medium.
But this is no coincidence.
For years, there has been increased awareness and interest in vinyl. The media calls it the “vinyl resurgence.” Whether people buy vinyl because they think it sounds better, as collectors, nostalgia, or for no concrete reason at all, we can all agree that vinyl is by far and away the most inconvenient way to consume music in 2020. So why would this become the predominant physical product? People have made a choice and deemed the vinyl experience worthy of the extra effort.
These are our people, and they’re a huge part of the reason we took the time and energy to produce a 180-gram vinyl record (in the pre-cool-kid days of 2014, even!) to introduce our catalog to potential clients. It’s also part of the “quality over quantity” mentality that we take with our music and every piece of content we craft.
Technology has enabled musicians to create as quickly and as much as they desire. It mirrors the methods that music is available for consumption from an audience. You seldom see lines of people waiting at their local record store to be the first to hear a new release. Everyone around the world with access to the internet can find it with a few simple keystrokes and a handful of clicks. It’s easy.
Some of us want to live our lives more intentionality than just blindly clicking the Spotify ads, offers, and notices littering our emails and socials. We’ve made a conscious choice to take the extra effort and extra time to not add to the noise, but intentionally contribute to the world around us. Because just as vinyl lovers pick the perfect record from their shelves, carefully remove the vinyl from the sleeve, place it gently on the turntable, guide the tone arm and slowly lower the stylus, we know the result is worth it. The experience is worth it.
Clearly, the vinyl resurgence isn’t going anywhere. And neither are we.
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