Poking Holes in the Vinyl Revival

A Record Store That Sells Vinyl

This Stereogum article looks at the less well publicized drawbacks of the putative resurgence in vinyl sales of the past several years. In short, with few factories able to actually produce vinyl, the limited production capacity can make it very difficult to actually ship discs. This is not much of a problem for larger labels that sell the format (The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” is a best-seller on LP) than it is for the folks for whom vinyl should really be a benefit: small, independent labels, for whom production times can run as long as six months, dangerously tying up their already constrained capital.

I’ve long been skeptical of vinyl’s second act. In spite of the surprising growth in sales figures for the format over the past few years, it has rarely had the feeling of an authentic revival—more like the feeling of a bubble among people who are desperate to buy authenticity, artificially inflated by those who profit from selling it. Stereogum quote’s indie musician Kip Berman’s incisive comments on that specific quality:

The vinyl revival is brought to you by the same industry that wanted everyone to buy their record collections AGAIN on CD/tape.

That seems about right to me. You know what also sounds about right? The fact that vinyl doesn’t sound better than digital music.

Read the full article at stereogum.com.

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