by Alex Barker
Over the summer I started listening to more vinyl and expanding my ever-growing collection. I usually listen to the majority of music on my phone while walking/cycling and switch to vinyl once I get home. After listening to vinyl for a prolonged period of time I started to notice a moderate difference in music quality between digital and vinyl and conducted some research into why this was and to make sure there wasn’t something wrong with my hearing!
When researching why digital music in my opinion does not sound as good as vinyl I discovered that digital recording does not capture the whole sound wave and only approximates it, this leads to distortion in different instruments for example the drums and trumpet which can switch notes quickly and smoothly. This also happens with CD’s and DVD’s as they only play a digital recording and when listening to them through a speaker the only difference is that the sound is being amplified so it can be played through the speaker. However what is so unique about vinyl is that the groove which is cut into the vinyl is not an approximate capture of the sound wave but an exact capture of it. Why does this matter you may be asking yourself? Well, this allows the sound waves from the vinyl to be more accurate, you hear how the song was meant to be heard by the artist/band and the music overall sounds much clearer and richer and sometimes has a higher effective dynamic range. However there are obvious disadvantages when listening to vinyl, for example dust and minor scratches can present quite significant problems such as static and music cutting in and out and even repeating itself. In addition to this vinyl’s could be considered easily breakable and quite weak and fragile and when a vinyl record is broken you cannot just glue it back together, it stays broken. I’ve unfortunately had the experience of listening to a broken single of ‘smoke on the water’ and it is not one I would like to experience again.
Another unique aspect of vinyl is that the process of going into a record shop and handling a record is much more exciting and fulfilling than typing in an album on Spotify and shuffling through. It is an experience that can lead to looking and sorting through different records for many hours and is one definitely worth experiencing. One of the most interesting and significant aspects of vinyl is the huge community surrounding it, people buying, collecting, and reselling. Almost every town or city has a second-hand record shop which may reveal an exciting discovery. Records also generally keep their original value, and if you are lucky enough to have a rare original 1st print copy it can even increase in value such as ‘The Beatles’ (White Album) which has a serial number of 0000001 and sold for $790,000 (£620,000) at auction. However, one major disadvantage when comparing vinyl records to digital music is that turntables and records cannot fit into your pocket while travelling to school. Moreover, for digital music, unless you listen to the majority of your music on YouTube or Soundcloud you will most likely need a subscription to a streaming service, for example Spotify. To listen to music ad-free an additional cost up to £9.99 a month is required, which is quite expensive if you just listen to the same albums and bands over and over again. For £9.99 you could buy yourself a good quality second-hand vinyl record and listen to the same album as on Spotify but with a higher quality sound and there is nothing blocking you from listening to it when your subscription runs out.
In conclusion, I don’t believe that vinyl is the future or that it will surpass streaming services in revenue, because let’s be honest streaming is far more convenient anyway. But there is nothing like buying a new record that you haven’t been able to find for a very long time, admiring the cover art (which has its own following and genre), taking the record out of the sleeve, playing it on your turntable and listening to it for the very first time.
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