It's a funny old world - technology advances faster than ever - but we now spend more on LPs than streaming music.

Sales of vinyl LPs increased by 30% in 2020 making more money for record labels than at any time since 1989.

Do you have a vinyl collection and enjoy the ritual of playing them or do you prefer the simplicity of streaming and CDs?

Dad and I watched games standing on the muddy slope of the Holmesdale Road end. He cheered and I rattled.

I am rather cynical about the vinyl thing.
A record is a solid object that can be sold at a ridiculously inflated price. The record companies love them. It's a taste of the old days before people did illegal downloads.

Now the quality is a different subject. Many claim vinyl sounds the best.

Does it really?

First you have only six tracks a side, so you have to get up and turn it over. Second you have a very limited way of listening to music. One album at a time. Then you have compression of groves on the tracks nearer the label which reduces quality. Then you have the dust and the crackles and the skips.

What about the actual sound? Well vinyl is analogue from start to finish, apart from the recording process which on new material is almost always digital nowadays. On digital files and CDs, the sound is produced digitally, but by the time it hits your ears, it has been converted to analogue.

So everything you hear is analogue no matter what, but what about the effect of digital recording versus physical vinyl.
The answer is that digital music comes in various forms. CD's have limited information but produce the sound using a few cheats. Audio files come in a variety of types that are better or worse depending on the information stored. Then, you have the equipment you are playing it on which is very important but maybe more important is the quality of the recording in the first place. If it was crap in the recording studio then it will stay crap no mater how you listen to it.

Vinyl is limited physically by the pressing and condition. Like any other format, it is a representation of a recording which itself is the consequence of other equipment, environment and studio tweaking. There is no 'real' sound. It is a recording. Vinyl is no more 'real' than anything else. It is more about what you are used to hearing.

I use 24bit audio files when available, and can listen to music at the press of a button, selecting tracks and albums randomly or selectively in an instant. I don't need a load of space to store vinyl or to get up of the chair every two seconds.
Is the sound better? Well I have compared 24bit hi res files to vinyl and in the end it is a matter of taste. I'd go for the hi res all day in most cases but better still, you can convert vinyl records to hi res digital files.

What's not to like?
The results are still varied as you would expect because of other factors as mentioned.

OK, I'm done.

Edited by Hrolf The Ganger (24 Mar 2021 2.24pm)

I feel sorry for you to have to get up and do anything let alone turn a recorded over .
I do prefer vinyl the feel the sound including the scratches . You also with an album listen to the whole thing not just selected tracks and there are great tracks that never get played because some producer does not like it or have not been paid by the record company .

I think hunting down vinyl in record stores in the old way is a subject unto itself.

Those were the days.

Yes, cathartic isn't it? There's a place near me called Vinyl Matters, but my favourite is Ben's in Guildford.

These are still the days - when we're allowed out!

Not like you to be cynical about something

A lot of what you have said is right. I have a record player and sound system and the sound quality is great but it's blue tooth so can also play Spotify off my phone which happens just as often as sticking a record on. One thing I do like about vinyl is that it forces you to listen to the album in the order intended by the artist as a complete body of work rather than skipping tracks or just listening to the singles like you can with streaming.

For me, buying a record is a way of supporting the artist, especially during Covid when they cannot make money from touring. Being a musician is a not a glamorous/well paid lifestyle unless you're a mainstream artist that can sell out big venues so always try and do my bit so that they are still able to make the music that I like to listen to.

Also there's a massive pleasure of spending an hour in a record shop browsing. And the artwork looks better in the bigger size.