VINYL RESURGENCE

Well its certainly become a big part of my life again in the past couple of years, but looks like the trend for vinyl music sales is more widespread than that...check this article (thanks to Chris at Hijack for the linkage). I try to remember why I stopped buying vinyl in the first place. I'm convinced that vinyl records started sounding much worse in the late '80s - coincidently the time when CDs first made their mark in the industry. I reckon it was deliberate sabotage - the records were mastered and pressed lousy at the behest of the industry bigwigs to forcibly turn people off the sound of vinyl, to make way for the new digital technology that they'd spent millions developing. But with me it was a gradual transition, and I guess the CD became prominent in my collecting habits by the mid-late '90s. Then a couple of years back I got really into the MP3 download format..mainly cos I'd just bought an iPod. But I'm over that now. Its funny, cos now I'm back to vinyl 100% and loving every minute of it. Just bought the milky-white vinyl edition of the new Boards Of Canada EP - the first time I've ever purchased a BoC release in that format. Feels good. Another point made in the article is the ongoing collectibilty of vinyl, and that's part of the appeal too - you feel like your investing in something, rather than some throwaway digital file. I reckon I'm back to stay. Looks like a new generation (not necessarily djs, either) feel the same way, which must be irritating for the major corporations, as they've been busy trying to educate everyone that all the old 'tactile' formats are dead. Looks like the consumers are making their own minds up on this issue. The only problem for me now is that I desperately need more storage space for my records!