In the last five years or so, vinyl has become the hottest thing in the music business, or what’s left of it. You know something’s really infiltrated the mainstream when you see actual vinyl albums and turntables at places like Best Buy and Frys.
Yet one label executive has called the latest resurgence in vinyl a trend, although I usually like to think that trends last six months to a year, and not five to six years, which is when we first saw vinyl jumping again in the marketplace.
As the president of RCA, Tom Corson, told Rolling Stone, “it’s a sexy, cool product, but it’s not going to make or break our year.” Still, vinyl sales jumping 52% last year sure isn’t chickenfeed. Not to mention vinyl pressing plants reportedly can’t keep up with the demand, because it’s not just metalheads and punks that want vinyl, but fans of Taylor Swift as well.
In a day and age where everyone treats music like a free-for-all, it’s nice to see people actually buying albums again, and returning to a great format like vinyl. You can always debate whether it sounds better than digital, but for fans of vinyl, there’s clearly no substitute.
