Vinyl records are making a comeback

By Daniel Taylor

BELLEVILLE – After a generation of evolving audio formats, vinyl records keep on spinning.

In 2015, vinyl record sales were up 32 per cent to their highest level since 1988 according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

This despite the fact that vinyl had almost entirely disappeared after the introduction of the compact disc in the late 80’s.

Holly Desten, owner of the last Sam the Record Man, located here in Belleville, attributes the recent rise in vinyl sales to the youth of today.

“Younger people are starting to get into it more, they are not buying CD’s as much. They’re into the vinyls and I think it’s the parents that influence them,” said Desten.

Vinyl records are analogue technology, a much different format than what is being experienced through the digital technology of today.

Albums are old school, filled with hisses and pops that modern music formats had erased. Digital is technically cleaner, but the compression technology in things like MP3’s tends to dull the sounds of the highs and lows.

Lifelong vinyl collector and 30-year Sam the Record Man customer Lance Calberry said the quality of the music is the main factor in vinyl’s recent success.

“It has a truer, cleaner sound. Actually, I think analogue has a more definite sound. You can play so much with digital and it does sound good, but if you take a digital album and play it and then listen to the analogue version of it, even with the slight imperfections with analogue, it has a truer, sweeter sound than digital does.”

Also helping with vinyl’s resurgence was the introduction of new vinyl pressings. In 2008, National Record Store day was introduced in effort to draw attention to local record stores found in the United States.

One of the things that’s happened as a result is that more new artists are having albums pressed.