Are Records Obselete? The Retro Revolution

Right now, any music we want to get is already right there in our homes, ready to be downloaded with a click of a mouse. If somebody wanted to listen to that music – they would just have to add it to their iTunes library or search for it on YouTube. It’s hard to think that less than thirty years ago, vinyl records were the way music was most widely consumed. Now, it seems they are obsolete – with the digital revolution why would they still be around? Well, sales records show that they are actually on the rise – gaining more profit than they did in the late 90’s.  So, why are they still so big, and what can actually be gained by such an old form of listening to music?

So, first we should look at some statistics. According to the RIAA end of year statistics, 71.8 million dollars of profit for vinyl sales were being made worldwide in 1995. This was broken down into 47.6 million in singles, and 25.1 in LPs. In 2011, however, the figures were quite different - as shown in this infographic.

So, the question left to ask is why? Here’s a video from Sky News (2009), explaining the whole phenomenon.