In an era where every song ever recorded is available to stream at your fingertips, a classic format for listening to music is making a surprising comeback.
Surprising, that is, unless you’re a record collector who has seen music on vinyl explode in popularity.
The growth in vinyl sales, in fact, has even outpaced sales of its smaller digital cousin, the compact disc, for the first time in decades.
According to statistics from music industry tracker Billboard, in 2021 vinyl records were responsible for more than half of all physical album sales in the United States, and more than 30 per cent of all album sales in total.
Across the pond, the British Phonographic Industry recorded more than five million LP sales last year — the 14th consecutive year records have seen an increase.
Those changes aren’t a shock for local vinyl dealers, either.
Ray Giguere, owner of Argy’s Collectibles, told 680 CJOB on Tuesday that he’s seen interest in the format grow considerably over the past decade, with things really heating up in the last couple of years.
“The last five years, the last two for sure, have just been insane in terms of the demand for vinyl records,” he said.
“It’s all ages. The tweens all the way up to baby boomers. The boomers are the ones who are mostly selling off the records, while the younger generation is absorbing everything.”
Giguere said the debate over which format sounds better is always going to be a matter of personal preference, but the overall experience of listening to and collecting vinyl is a large part of its ongoing appeal.
“I think with an album, there’s that nostalgic factor… but it’s also the physical aspect of putting the needle down on the record and hearing it rotate and just falling in love with it.
“There’s nothing wrong with CDs, but it’s a little more mechanical and antiseptic — where it’s a machine and you push the button and it plays.
“The whole (vinyl) experience — a new age group, a new demographic has fallen in love with it, and the collectors have come back in full force.”
That experience is part of the reason Brent Jackson says his customers continue to seek out vinyl copies of their favourite albums as well.
“I hear the coined phrase all the time that ‘vinyl’s making a comeback’… but I don’t think it ever went anywhere,” said Jackson, owner of Osborne Village record shop Old Gold Vintage Vinyl.
“I think people are connecting with that format of media more than a CD, which seems almost disposable at this point.
“It’s a tangible item, and you get that connection with that album or artist that you wouldn’t really get with a digital download or MP3 or streaming service, because it doesn’t feel like yours. When someone collects records or they buy music on vinyl, it feels like it’s theirs.
“It’s almost a piece of you that can be represented by that flat, black piece of plastic.”
In a fast-paced world, he said, there’s a difference between deliberately spending time with a vinyl record, versus using music as a background soundtrack to your other activities.
“When a person has the time with that record, it’s just them and that artist and that music, and the rest of the world’s kind of gone,” he said.
“When you’re listening to digital or streaming, you’re always in your car, you’re doing something on your phone, you’re jogging … and it’s just filler.
“It’s hard to see where we’re going as a society, but looking at the past at all that beautiful art that’s been made on vinyl… I think it’s enchanting to a young person or an older person trying to reconnect to the music that made them who they are.”
Although much of the focus on vinyl in recent months has been on mega-selling pop records by top international artists such as Taylor Swift or Adele, for some niche subgenres of music, vinyl — in relatively small quantities — has always been the format of choice.
“During the digital revolution, when CDs were coming up, it was mainly underground bands like punk and hardcore and metal bands keeping the (vinyl) format alive,” said Brad Skibinsky, who serves discerning listeners who want heavy sounds on wax with via Winnipeg’s Eye and Ear Control Records.
“I think it’s iconic — I think there’s a level of craftsmanship there… several layers of different technical knowledge you need to produce it.
“There’s an air of permanence and an air of craftsmanship and legacy to it.”