Why The Return To Vinyl?

For once, audiophiles were right. Sort of. There has been a significant resurgence of vinyl. Audiophiles didn’t really predict this, some of them just said “Vinyl is better.”  And given the mass market tastes of our fellow humans, you might think that would be irrelevant. But apparently not, as indicated in the graph accompanying this post.

It is worth asking why, if we want to keep moving toward better recorded music. Ted Gioia, the music and industry critic recently wrote an article titled “I Return To Vinyl After 34 Years”. Ted has some observations about sound quality and the listening experience that are on point, but pretty well covered. What is more interesting to me is how he adds decisions and incentives in the music business to this. It is easy to be cynical, but he ends with a call for a “Super Vinyl” format. Which seems full of hope, not cynicism.

Check out Ted’s detailed piece here.