Despite my good friend Michael Coppola trying to get me into records some years back, it was something which I honestly never saw the attraction of. Having said all of this, around 4 years ago I started to hear a bit of buzz about vinyl collecting and so I went in with both feet, quickly amassing quite the collection and replacing some of my favorite albums from CDs to vinyl. And so I wanted to write a quick piece today just to say that if you love music like I do, then here is exactly why you should start collecting vinyl.
The Thrill of The Surprise
One of the best things about the is format of music is that it has been around for such a long time, on top of this during the 90s so many people got rid of their vinyl collection because they felt that the time for CDs would render them obsolete. This of course never came to pass and that means that there is loads of vinyl out there just waiting to be snapped up. What I particularly love about this are those amazing surprises which you get when you are digging for vinyl, those albums which you used to love but forgot about, that is where the true fun lies for me.
The Whole Piece of Art
I think that with everything moving to digital and less materialistic ways, that we have lost a little bit of what the art was all about in the first place. With vinyl however, there is the entire piece of art for you to enjoy. This starts with the cover, iconic images printed nice and big to be enjoyed, then there is the music itself and the nature of vinyl is such that you are far more inclined to listen to the whole album than you are to just listen to a song and then switch albums. Finally there are all of those amazing details inside the LP, the information and the tidbits which make this what it is, this is something which you cannot replace with digital music.
The Community
I have to say that the vinyl community have been absolutely amazing and I have enjoyed talking to so many of them on social media. Not only is everyone pretty cool and accepting, but you get to safer amazing stories and info about vinyls and about albums too. This has been a bonus for me but something which has certainly inspired me to continue collecting.
The Theater
Many think that playing vinyls is time consuming and awkward, and they may very well have a point. This however, is exactly why I love vinyl so much, this ridiculousness of taking the disc out carefully, placing it on the deck, waiting for the side to finish and then turning it back over. The whole thing feels theatrical and that is yet another reason to fall in love with record collecting.
