Sonicsicknees

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The Benefits of Vinyl

I remember the very first time I went out and bought a vinyl record. It was just over nine years ago in one of the larger chain stores in Leeds. The record in question was Staind’s 7” release for ‘Price to Play’. Thinking back to that day, I find it hard to place my finger on why I bought it. Half of me feels that it might have been some nostalgic kickback to my childhood when I just to sit on the living room floor and play with my dad’s record collection. However, more realistically, the reason I probably bought it was because of the sheer novelty factor of the item. I was 15 years old and we didn’t even have a record player in the house anymore, but for the price of 99p you couldn’t really argue with it.

Nine years down the road and a little over 150 (a combination of both 7” & 12”)  records in my collection, I’ve begun to wonder why I’ve fallen in love with vinyl, especially considering the rise of the digital age.

I used to love buying CD’s, going home and inspecting every aspect of the artwork, the lyrics and even going so far as to reading through all the ‘Thank You’s’. I don’t think the death of my love of CD’s was down to just one factor, but, instead, a combination of the financial cost of buying CD’s, the over-saturation of the music industry, and the convenience of downloads and MP3’s. These three things combined killed my love for CD’s, but, more importantly, I began to realise that it had also killed the connection I used to make with the music I was listening to.

Granted, this probably sounds like a huge dramatisation, but it’s important to understand that between the ages of 10 and 15 I would devote myself to the CD’s that I bought. I can still probably reel off the track listing of many of those albums, which label released them and in which year. However, toward the latter end of the naughties that changed and I would often find myself unable to even remember the names of my favourite tracks off a recently released album, never mind any of the finer details. For me, this is the void that vinyl has filled.

It’s given me the opportunity to engage with the music and albums that I love in a more physical way. It’s no longer just some random song title on my PC screen, but something I can hold in my hands. It’s something that I have to handle with care, something I spend time cleaning, an audible experience that requires attention and effort, instead of a iTunes play list set on random. 

I don’t claim to be an audiophile that buys vinyl because that sound is superior (although this is a benefit). I buy it because it allows me to feel that little bit closer to the music. However, no matter how much I’d like to argue otherwise, I have to admit that buying vinyl is also a financial investment in a way that other musical formats simply aren’t. Although I won’t be able to make any profit off of the collection I have, I have the reassurance in knowing that I haven’t wasted the money in the same way as I would have if I’d have purchased CD’s. This is mainly due to the way in which vinyl is able to often retain its value.

Nothing I’ve said in this post is either new or groundbreaking. Many vinyl enthusiasts have said similar things time and time again. Considering that, I’ll just end this post with a picture of what the postman brought me today.

The Benefits of Vinyl

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