In the turn of the century, when Y2K was feared and mobile phone was only used for calls, the music industry was set on fire. With programs such as Napster (a peer-to-peer file sharing program) inadvertently allowing piracy of music and encouraging the use of purely digital audio files, the music industry took devastating damage. Besides artists and record labels being hurt financially, this also led to the downfall of physical media, which was further escalated by legitimate streaming services such as Spotify. These streaming services gained heavy traction thanks to the fact that they were unparalleled in their convenience, and provided good quality as well, even more so as the internet evolved and became stronger. Soon, CDs were becoming a thing of the past, much like DVDs, thanks to the internet.
Or at least, that is what it seems.
Physical Media, despite not being able to combat the convenience of the internet, never truly went away. There are a few stores that still sell DVDs and Blu-Rays, such as Barnes and Noble in New York Manhattan. Music is not an exception, and unlike the movie industry, has had an even bigger comeback, in the form of the absurdly outdated format “Vinyl’s.” The comeback was so great that in New Jersey, music shops selling Vinyl’s and CD’s have sprung up.
The reason why physical sound has sprung back is unclear, but a possible reason could be nostalgia. Nostalgia, however, can be very fleeting and sugarcoated, so it might not be reliable for sales. Another reason that could be the resurgence in physical formats, primarily vinyl’s, could be aesthetics.
The idea that something could be sorely sought-after due to aesthetics over practicality is extremely hard to understand but is something that happens very often. Vinyls are the culprit of this, because if there is something that they ought to be known for, it is that they are as cool as they are fragile and does not compare to the sound quality that is on CD’s. Honestly, there is no good reason to buy vinyl, other than the fact they look so cool.
When you get a big wooden machine and put an oversized plastic on it and press play, it looks smooth and pleasing. They look like big art pieces that say a lot about you, and that is something music can do a lot for people.
If you are interested in buying some vinyl’s, there are some excellent shops for you to go to. There’s Iris Records in Jersey City, and Tunes in Hoboken, they are quite popular and offer a wide selection from not just vinyl’s, but CD’s and Cassettes.
