Rebekka Zuckermann Kristiansen's Blog

Looking for a reason for why I still love that heavy black vinyl, I’ve gone through many an internet article searching for an explanation to why the impractical and non-digital can survive in this day and age. The vinyl record is sometimes perceived as the dinosaur of music, but according to The Economist, today sales of vinyls are actually increasing.

Statistics for US vinyl record sales

Now why is this? Is it just because of the “coolness factor”? It can’t singlehandedly be due to the very iconic tradition of placing a record on a turntable, but perhaps a combination of factors that together make up an actually practical alternative to CDs. For example, as the vinyl industry has renewed itself, they have added codes for downloading their songs from the internet, leaving illegal downloading unnecessary. This proves to be a good example of how a “brand” that initially claims a specific market can renew itself to compete with modern technology. The vinyl industry maintains the points of parity with downloadable songs, while keeping their points of difference, mainly the atmosphere of the vinyl record. To me as a consumer the vinyl record does not only stay updated, but it becomes practical, in addition to just really really cool.