In Defense of Vinyl Records

593 thoughts on “In Defense of Vinyl Records”

  1. One thing about vinyl is that once you see a certain label, or producer or writer’s name on a label — you know you have something that’s likely gold. I mean, I carry my Handy Trax with me anytime I leave the house looking for vinyl, but 9 times out of 10 — my instincts on a good record are right.

    With CDs? You can’t open them up and see who producer or wrote what. You certainty can’t do that on iTunes. Does iTunes let you explore a lot of stuff you might not know about? Yeah, definitely — but not with the same accuracy. You generally need to have a starting point if you’re scouring iTunes for new music, whereas I might walk into a vinyl shop and pull out something I had no idea I was going to find.

    There’s also the whole interesting covers side of it. Some records I come across just have crazy artwork. I slap it on the Handy Trax and find out the artwork definitely matches the sound and I’m sold. Sometimes I run across stuff like that and find myself tracking down a group’s entire discography because the album was that good.

    I’ve jokingly (or perhaps seriously) said the record industry should offer MP3s for everyday listeners, but issue everything on vinyl for the real music lovers. If you buy vinyl, 9 out of 10 times — you’re passionate about the music as a complete work and art, not just background music while playing Flash games at work.

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