Austin Sumter, Campus Carrier Online Editor
Since about sophomore year of high school, I have found myself obsessed with buying music on vinyl. It kind of started out as a novelty. We had a record player at home, but I was the only one who used it. We had only weird gospel records, so I took it upon myself to start my own collection.
When I found a record store near a coffee shop I frequented with my friends that had an entire section of $1 records, I was hooked. I bought oldies like The Village People, Musical Memories of Hungary (which ended up being pretty awesome) and Kool and the Gang, just to say that I had them. My buying habits soon evolved into finding music I actually cared about. These included the soundtracks to Rogers and Hammerstein musicals, Macy Gray and orchestral pieces. Now, I look to see if there is a version of the music I like on vinyl before getting the digital download. Some alternative artists like Say Anything, Two Door Cinema Club, The Mowgli’s, Arctic Monkeys and Of Monsters and Men offer vinyl versions of their music in addition to common formats like CDs and digital downloads, which keeps my collection more modern. The records even come in fun colors like pink (Of Monsters and Men), sea foam green (The Mowgli’s) and white (Say Anything, Two Door Cinema Club).
There is just something calming about the process of getting the record out of the sleeve, placing it on the player, listening to the initial white noise of the needle and getting to sit back, relax and enjoy the music. I have no opinion about whether the sound quality of records is better than that of CDs, and I do realize that habitually buying an obsolete piece of technology is expensive and old-fashioned. It really is substantially cheaper and easier to only get my music from iTunes than to wait for my music to come in the mail. However, digital libraries have always seemed so empty to me. My song library says that I have hundreds of albums, but I’ve never held them or looked at the pictures in the cover art all too closely. Having about 20 or 30 large, physical copies of my music is so much more substantial to me than an iPod Classic about a quarter of the way full. Yes, my collection is heavy and it is tedious to have to flip the record, but I feel more invested in the music than I do when I’m just sitting at my computer with my headphones on. Because I have a physical copy of the music and have invested more of my time into listening to it, I tend to pay more attention to it. I listen more intently when I know that I can’t put the song on repeat or easily start it from the beginning.
Even though I buy the vinyl format, I don’t have to miss out on today’s technologies because most records from modern artists will include a digital download so that you can take your music anywhere. I get the best of both worlds.
I have absolutely nothing against digital downloads, but I just innately enjoy vinyl records more. It’s really the only reason I buy vinyl.