8 ms·

I was recently in a large shop that sells books, music, etc. and I was amazed at the number of "LPs" (as I used to call them) of music old and new. The one thin

I was recently in a large shop that sells books, music, etc. and I was amazed at the number of "LPs" (as I used to call them) of music old and new. The one thing that I really like about that format is... cover art. Cover art kind of survived the CD but the large size of a 12" record sleeve means you get real art. I asked someone way younger than me (some students of about 19/20) why they buy records and they expressed how much they like the physical format and owning the music.

jfengel 4y ago
Indeed, there was news last month that vinyl now outsells CDs: https://www.bbc.com/news/64919126 https://www.bbc.com/news/64919126 "Music lovers clearly can't get enough of the high-quality sound and tangible connection to artists vinyl delivers," Glazier said, "and labels have squarely met that demand with a steady stream of exclusives, special reissues, and beautifully crafted packages and discs."
eesmith 4y ago
I bought (and long ago gave away, alas) an LP copy of the Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" because it opened up to a 12-page newspaper, while the CD had a smaller abridged copy.
lispisok 4y ago
Reasons I buy vinyl: 1. It's a different listening experience than the "song shuffle on Spotify" that dominates now. It's more a more active and focused listening experience. You put an album on to listen to that album from start to finish. 2. I want to support musicians by buying their albums. However I dont like buying digital music because it doesnt have the permanence a physical object has. I dont like spending money on what's basically ctrl-c ctrl-v files onto my hard drive. CD's are too flimsy. Vinyl has heft. 3. I'm not into the album art that much but a lot of my guests are and like to thumb through my records and look at the art. 4. I'm a hipster contrarian. When vinyl started to get too popular I started buying cassettes too
- grujicd 4y ago
  Records for sure beat longevity of most media. I got a 1979 record from a friend. One side was full of dust. I guess it was parked that way on record player for few decades. After simple gentle wash and dry it was as good as new! Of course, if it's scrached it's not good. And if you listen it hundred times it will degrade, but it will still work.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  Reasons I buy CDs and not vinyl: 2. I want to support musicians by buying their albums. However, I don't like buying vinyl because it's horribly inconvenient, and the sound quality isn't great (clicks and pops), and requires special equipment that needs too much space for my apartment. On top of that, every time you play it, it degrades the sound quality, and even handling the sleeve wears it out since it has no plastic protective layer: well-used vinyl albums are dog-eared. CDs aren't flimsy like vinyl, and will last indefinitely if you take care of them, and their album art, while about 1/4 the size of a vinyl album, has the same aspect ratio and looks like new since it's kept in a "jewel case" (except for some newer albums). On top of all this, ripping a CD into a FLAC file is easy if you still have an optical drive (you can buy a USB-connected portable one for $20). 1. It's a different listening experience than the "song shuffle on Spotify" that dominates now. I just select the album I want to hear in my music player (which has my whole library on my laptop's HD), click "play", and let it play the whole album. Skipping songs is easy if I want to do that, but nothing is forcing me to, so I usually don't, and just listen to the album start-to-finish. For some odd reason, a lot of people seem to not have the discipline to do that.
dylan604 4y ago
as someone that was a vinyl DJ in a former life that saw the transition from vinyl to CDs to where it is now, vinyl is absolutely my favorite precisely because of the physicality of it. it was the closest to feeling of playing an instrument. learning the touch and feel of picking up the stylus cartridge without the infamous screeching/scratch sound, how light/heavy to touch the platter/spindle/label to push/pull/drag to speed up or slow down the record to keep line up the beats were all things that reminded of playing an instrument (I played woodwinds) with how much air to use, how hard to hit the reeds, and the various other physical things to play. there was also the fact that it had to be played and not programmed that i appreciate from playing vinyl. as a medium for just sitting back and enjoying some tunes at home, it's gotta be the worst! LPs might give you 3,4,5 songs per side, but you still would have to get up and flip it or find another LP. singles like 45s or 12"s were even worse as it was one song at a time. a 12" at 45rpm only has somewhere around 10mins of recording. an LP at 33rpm might have 20-ish minutes. so that's a lot of interruptions in the music flow. if you really enjoy that manual switching out, then i'd suggest just taking the next step and being a DJ constantly mixing track to track.
- grujicd 4y ago
  For me it's the other way around. Striming or local digital collection trigger my "let's skip to next song" impulse. While with LP I'll listen to entire album. So vinyl is for me medium of choice for sitting and listening at home.
  - dylan604 4y ago
    This is where the cassette or CD are great mediums for listening to the full album (using the cassette's autoflip mode). recently, i started going back through music collection to listen to full albums instead of the streaming track to track as you've mentioned. it was a very nice change of pace from just hearing random tracks continuously. it seems to be popular enough that even youtube has Full Album titles. the playlist assembling full albums are rather annoying for those albums with no gaps between tracks, but are better than nothing if that's all that's available. so now it's best of both worlds where it is streaming but still the full album experience.

jfengel 4y ago

Indeed, there was news last month that vinyl now outsells CDs: https://www.bbc.com/news/64919126 https://www.bbc.com/news/64919126 "Music lovers clearly can't get enough of the high-quality sound and tangible connection to artists vinyl delivers," Glazier said, "and labels have squarely met that demand with a steady stream of exclusives, special reissues, and beautifully crafted packages and discs."

eesmith 4y ago

I bought (and long ago gave away, alas) an LP copy of the Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick" because it opened up to a 12-page newspaper, while the CD had a smaller abridged copy.

lispisok 4y ago

Reasons I buy vinyl: 1. It's a different listening experience than the "song shuffle on Spotify" that dominates now. It's more a more active and focused listening experience. You put an album on to listen to that album from start to finish. 2. I want to support musicians by buying their albums. However I dont like buying digital music because it doesnt have the permanence a physical object has. I dont like spending money on what's basically ctrl-c ctrl-v files onto my hard drive. CD's are too flimsy. Vinyl has heft. 3. I'm not into the album art that much but a lot of my guests are and like to thumb through my records and look at the art. 4. I'm a hipster contrarian. When vinyl started to get too popular I started buying cassettes too

grujicd 4y ago
Records for sure beat longevity of most media. I got a 1979 record from a friend. One side was full of dust. I guess it was parked that way on record player for few decades. After simple gentle wash and dry it was as good as new! Of course, if it's scrached it's not good. And if you listen it hundred times it will degrade, but it will still work.
midoridensha 4y ago
Reasons I buy CDs and not vinyl: 2. I want to support musicians by buying their albums. However, I don't like buying vinyl because it's horribly inconvenient, and the sound quality isn't great (clicks and pops), and requires special equipment that needs too much space for my apartment. On top of that, every time you play it, it degrades the sound quality, and even handling the sleeve wears it out since it has no plastic protective layer: well-used vinyl albums are dog-eared. CDs aren't flimsy like vinyl, and will last indefinitely if you take care of them, and their album art, while about 1/4 the size of a vinyl album, has the same aspect ratio and looks like new since it's kept in a "jewel case" (except for some newer albums). On top of all this, ripping a CD into a FLAC file is easy if you still have an optical drive (you can buy a USB-connected portable one for $20). 1. It's a different listening experience than the "song shuffle on Spotify" that dominates now. I just select the album I want to hear in my music player (which has my whole library on my laptop's HD), click "play", and let it play the whole album. Skipping songs is easy if I want to do that, but nothing is forcing me to, so I usually don't, and just listen to the album start-to-finish. For some odd reason, a lot of people seem to not have the discipline to do that.

dylan604 4y ago

as someone that was a vinyl DJ in a former life that saw the transition from vinyl to CDs to where it is now, vinyl is absolutely my favorite precisely because of the physicality of it. it was the closest to feeling of playing an instrument. learning the touch and feel of picking up the stylus cartridge without the infamous screeching/scratch sound, how light/heavy to touch the platter/spindle/label to push/pull/drag to speed up or slow down the record to keep line up the beats were all things that reminded of playing an instrument (I played woodwinds) with how much air to use, how hard to hit the reeds, and the various other physical things to play. there was also the fact that it had to be played and not programmed that i appreciate from playing vinyl. as a medium for just sitting back and enjoying some tunes at home, it's gotta be the worst! LPs might give you 3,4,5 songs per side, but you still would have to get up and flip it or find another LP. singles like 45s or 12"s were even worse as it was one song at a time. a 12" at 45rpm only has somewhere around 10mins of recording. an LP at 33rpm might have 20-ish minutes. so that's a lot of interruptions in the music flow. if you really enjoy that manual switching out, then i'd suggest just taking the next step and being a DJ constantly mixing track to track.

grujicd 4y ago
For me it's the other way around. Striming or local digital collection trigger my "let's skip to next song" impulse. While with LP I'll listen to entire album. So vinyl is for me medium of choice for sitting and listening at home.
- dylan604 4y ago
  This is where the cassette or CD are great mediums for listening to the full album (using the cassette's autoflip mode). recently, i started going back through music collection to listen to full albums instead of the streaming track to track as you've mentioned. it was a very nice change of pace from just hearing random tracks continuously. it seems to be popular enough that even youtube has Full Album titles. the playlist assembling full albums are rather annoying for those albums with no gaps between tracks, but are better than nothing if that's all that's available. so now it's best of both worlds where it is streaming but still the full album experience.