What’s Old Is New: Behind the Vinyl Resurgence

For some music lovers, the idea of playing a vinyl record brings a sharp pang of nostalgia; for others, the mere idea carries the same whiff of yesteryear as struggling to find a payphone or using a rolodex.

Yet some two decades after the rise of portable MP3 players, which promised to condense entire album libraries into a lone, handheld device, and streaming services that offer virtually endless catalogs, vinyl has again surged in popularity. Once declared “dead,” the vinyl record has made a triumphant comeback into mainstream enjoyment and is responsible for more than a billion dollars in annual sales.

Targeted at Teens

Vinyl records enjoyed their “golden age” from 1950-1980, having their roots in such early technology as cylinders covered in tinfoil and waxed discs. Post-World War II, both recorded music and the equipment to play it became attainable for the average consumer. The growing “Baby Boom” demographic was heavily targeted via radio and music-themed television shows, and those young buyers drove the market.

But after three decades, vinyl’s dominance was toppled thanks to the debut of the compact disc. Like the formats the CD was deemed superior to – not only records, but 8-track and cassette tapes – the CD itself was a physical object that required a separate device on which to play it. Then the MP3 – a digitally recorded format that required the physicality of only the player – seemed poised to usurp vinyl and CDs entirely, but something simple thwarted that prediction: the consumer.

Not Just for Hipsters

Take Turner Sato. While these days, vinyl is often associated with DJs or hipsters, Sato, who is neither, dispels that notion. Simply put, Sato is a music lover and connoisseur. With the exception of Top 40 music he might hear on the radio in the car or at home, Sato listens only to vinyl, refusing to go digital.

His relationship to vinyl marries his love of music with his love of bargain hunting. In 2011, he was subscribed to a website that listed daily deals. One day, a record player popped up. For years, Sato had happily relied on his cassettes and CDs, but the deal on the record player seemed too good to pass up.  It"was normally $60 and I got it for $30,” he says. Luck was on his side as the friend he was staying with had a few old albums stashed away that he gave Sato. Now vinyl plays a large part of his collection.

For Hayley Ringle of Phoenix, Arizona, playing an LP is an exercise in mindfulness. “There’s just something about physically putting an album on the record player, putting the needle on, and listening,” she says. “You’re more involved.”

Ringle was in elementary school when she first fell in love with record albums. Her then-favorite artist was Michael Jackson, and Thriller was everywhere that year, including on her record player as the first album she ever bought.

Ringle has largely resisted the digitized music movement. When the record store where she worked upgraded their bookcases, she lugged the newly discarded ones to her home. The bookcases, she reasoned, were the perfect size and shape to better display and access her album collection, which she estimates numbers somewhere in the range of 1,000. She wears her resistance to “smart” music like a badge of honor. “When you have an album, you’re listening to the full album, listening to the songs the artist wants you to listen to,” she says.

National Record Day

There’s no question that vinyl is on the rise as a hot commodity. In a 2022 survey taken by Luminate, members of Gen Z (defined as those born between 1997 and 2002) were 27% more likely to buy vinyl. Moreover, 50% of vinyl purchasers also owned a record player, and 12% reported that vinyl or LPs were their preferred method to consume music.

Meanwhile, 2022 (the last full year for which data is available) was a big year for album sales overall. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reported total physical music revenue was $1.7 billion, up 4% from 2021. Within that segment, it was vinyl that cleaned house, raking in $1.2 billion, accounting for 71% of revenue in the physical music format space, and outselling CDs for the first time since 1987.

Vinyl gets a boost from “Record Store Day,” actually two Fridays a year: typically the third Friday in April, and Black Friday, the Friday following Thanksgiving. Started in 2008 to honor the stores and their workers, Record Store Day incentivizes enthusiasm for the medium, with roughly 190 global pressing plants produce more than 300 million record albums, according to RIAA. Artists release collectible, limited-edition albums for Record Store Day, such as U2’s Under a Blood-Red Sky, pressed on red vinyl. Kim Bayley, CEO of the Entertainment Retailers Association, cites the twice-yearly event as “the single most important catalyst” for the vinyl resurgence.

Fans of specific artists and the medium of vinyl line up early hoping to snag the limited-edition albums du jour. The hottest titles of 2023 included Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions by Taylor Swift, Bella Donna: Live 1981, a premiere in vinyl by Stevie Nicks, a 50th anniversary edition of Willie Nelson’s Shotgun Willie, and a double-set re-release of Live in Bakersfield, California, August 21, 1970, from The Doors.

Don’t Stop Believing

Collectors and recording artists have long shown off their albums with pride, but they’ve been joined by influencers, who’ve discovered that albums don’t just sound great; they look great when photographed deliberately. Dust & Grooves, one such account, prides itself on “documenting vinyl collections across the globe” and features its own collections as well as those of famous musicians like Questlove from The Roots.

Die-hard vinyl enthusiasts prefer their records above other musical mediums for several reasons. Record albums require the listener to physically move the record player’s needle or arm to a precise location to achieve the same “skip” or “repeat” and endless scrolling functions enabled at the touch of a button on CD and MP3 players. “There’s just something about physically putting an album on the record player – putting the needle on and listening,” says Ringle. “You have to physically play the album and get involved with that.”

This slower way of consuming music also comes with other sound incentives. Some connoisseurs will say they like vinyl records for the pops and hisses that the needle picks up, and many cite the resulting sound as a more authentic listening experience.

Whether vinyl fans are ahead of the trends or just getting started, one thing about them remains clear. For them, it’s personal. ”I love the art, I love the liner notes,” says Sato. “[There are images] burned into my skull that I associate with this song or that album. If you were looking at your little, tiny square device, there’s no time to re-experience that.”

“Rock ‘n’ roll is here to stay” proclaimed the classic song. So, too, is vinyl.