Okay, this is kinda crazy. I remember back in the '90s when Compact Discs pushed vinyl records to near extinction. But now, look at this:
The vinyl record has officially made its comeback!
I swear almost every music junkie I know has a record player now.
It's crazy.
The sound is beautiful, I'll give it that.
And the setup is pretty classy, too, sure.
Plus, contrary to the modern big-hit single downloads, you actually have to listen to the whole album all the way through; so you'd better be listening to something quality.
That's not to say that you don't get some of these benefits in a CD, but let's be honest: There's nothing really cool about a CD. It just goes inside the machine and the machine plays it back, nothing spectacular.
Now, CDs have officially been surpassed by vinyl records in overall sales.
In fact, vinyl album sales in the United States surpassed CD sales for the first time since 1987 last year...
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), 41 million vinyl records were sold in the U.S. last year, up from just 1.3 million in 2007, the year that Record Store Day was conceived. In the meantime, CD album sales plummeted from 500 million units in 2007 to just 33.4 million last year, marking the first time in 35 years that vinyl had the upper hand against its digital descendant.
THIRTY-FIVE YEARS!!!
That's outrageous!!!
Here's a handy chart for ya:
It's so strange to see such an obsolete piece of technology make a comeback like this. Yet, here we are.
And gramps, it's not just your old used records from the attic making their way to the platter. It seems like every cool indie band I know is selling their albums on vinyl these days.
People are obviously buying them up like hot cakes and I don't see the trend stopping anytime soon.
