Vinyl - It’s back…
Well, it actually never went away, it was more or less on hiatus with some collectors, aficionados and hobbyist. However, vinyl records are again popular and gaining momentum as more people are, again, looking to 2-channel music as a form of entertainment. We’ve been in a crazy video cycle for a number of years and although it remains the hottest market segment in the industry, audio is picking up some serious speed.
The iPod started two big trends; easy access to music collections and the general acceptance of compromised audio quality. The former has been growing by leaps and bounds as the convergence of the computer technology and the a/v industry has led to some amazing technologies allowing us to categorized, organized, shuffle, mix, share and enjoy our music collections. The latter trend of compressing music to accommodate larger collections within minimal storage capacities has quite frankly been disgusting. If your favorite music genres are mainstream pop and big label rock you probably don’t care about the audio quality of your music - let’s face it, those are recorded with an mind-staggering amount of compression anyway so a little more won’t hurt. However, if you’re into jazz, blues, classical, vocal, indie, folk, etc. then the quality does matter. Not to say that all music produced in these genres is recorded well, but the instruments used in these formats are at their best when they are not digitized and enjoyed within their own natural space.
And that leads us back to vinyl - music that is not digitized. The cassette revolutionized the portability of the music but it was the CD which took that into the stratosphere due to durability and storage capacity, however, music had to be digitized to be recorded on this medium. DVD-Audio and SACD gave us a brief glimpse into very well recorded digital audio but it required a special player and never recognized mainstream popularity. So, the best solution we had were some expensive players and esoteric DACs to help our digitized music sound as real as possible. Still, unless you were willing to spend some dollars and do some research, even the best players out there can leave the music sounding a bit sterile.
All of this does not imply that you should go out immediately and purchased a turntable and stacks of records, I’m just saying there is a reason we got the where we are today with music. Let’s face it, there’s not a luxury brand car on the market today with a turntable built into the dash to play your pressed-wax favorites, and I won’t even mention the complications that arise if you want to exercise while listening to your favorite album. The fact is the CD represents a convenient and durable medium for music, the iPod is the current pinnacle of portability and vinyl represents something different. Listening to music on vinyl takes commitment, both in time, patience and even in dollars, but the reward is a personal relationship and romantic affair with your music.
Think of the process, you start by opening a nice bottle of wine. While that is breathing you flip through your collection looking at wonderful coverart and reading interesting details on the album (hey let’s face it - the size of the album gives the artist and studio quite a bit of print space to talk to you about the music). You select a favorite, or maybe it’s a new purchase, or perhaps something you haven’t heard in a while. Power up the system, pour your wine and sit down with your significant other, some friends or maybe just take a moment to yourself. You’re then rewarded with a full dynamic audio treat. Instruments have character, sounds have space, the music has depth and without realizing it you might relax a little, take your mind of the days worries and find yourself engaged with the artist and enjoying a personal journey. Compare that to an iPod where, in the same time frame, your fourteen year old has listened to all of Avril’s greatest hits, compiled 10 new playlists for an upcoming party and sent 80-100 text messages to dozens of her almost closest friends…OMG! Clearly two different experiences.
Even the equipment is an engaging process; the turntable requires a tonearm and needle cartridge - two highly customized and specialized pieces of equipment. The turntables themselves have enjoyed a pleasant update with the latest technologies and manufacturing processes. You could spend $100 or $100K and in both cases still be looking for that magic combination. There is a phono stage somewhere in the mix, this unit prepares the signal from the cartridge for your integrated amp or preamps inputs, so it’s important and requires some thought. The records themselves are cumbersome; they are not easy to sort through, they require special handling - you can’t throw them around like CD’s and slam them into players. Then need to be cleaned of lint and dust and forget about leaving them in the car on a hot summer afternoon while you stop into local coffee shop for a ice latte. But ask anyone who is passionate about their own personal hobby and part of the reward is the journey. The fisherman who spends an afternoon tying that special fly for this weekends trip to that secret spot on the river or the car collector who spends a Sunday detailing their hot rod so it looks its best for the upcoming meet and greet; it’s the preparation that adds to the experience. And for the vinyl; it’s all those finicky details to select equipment and the careful handling of the album that is the passion most people don’t realize can exist in audio today. Schedules have become so hectic we’re left with downloading our music, we can’t even take the time to visit the local store to browse and shop. Do you even know where your nearest vinyl shop is?
I know there are a lot of you reading this coming up with all sorts of reasons agaist vinyl. I know what they are and I’ll be going into this further in an upcoming post regarding music servers and why everyone needs to have one (yes, needs to). In regards to vinyl and my reference to it being back, it really is. Recently the CEA reported that turntable shipments topped 32,000 sales in April which was one-third higher than the previous April which had 19,000 sales. You can find turntables in some surprising places like Wal-mart, BestBuy, and even Urban Outfitters. The turntables of today are not like your parents, they are more sophisticated and accessible. Some cost only $70 and there are a large number of them out there which are fitted with USB cables so you can copy your albums directly to digital files on your computer - which sound better than CD’s and much better than MP3. According to Neilsen SoundScan, a research company that tracks music sales, CD sales declined 15 percent in 2007 but vinyl sales are rising. In March, vinyl sales increased 70 percent over the same month the previous year.
Another interesting factor in favor of vinyl over the digital download is people want something physical to account for their purchase, not just a file stored on a hard disk. And vinyl collections are not limited to rare non-mainstream music, artists like U2, Madona, Metallica, Sonic Youth, Wilco, NIN and others are releasing their music on vinyl in addition to the normal CD’s and digital download formats - it’s buyers choice. There is an entire generation of music listeners who have never heard vinyl and are now able to access analog music for the first time in an every changing digital world. For the rest of us, it’s like an old comfortable pair of jeans…it just feels right.