Does the vinyl renaissance make sense to you because it sure doesn't to me
It makes tons of sense to me
First, if you are trying to make sense of the vinyl renaissance, you are least likely to get an accurate answer from someone who doesn't care for vinyl. We tend to be pretty poor at understanding why other people do things that we personally don't care for, and thus tend to resort to more facile "explanations" (e.g. "it's just a hipster thing" or whatever).
So...from someone who IS in to vinyl, here's my explanation (which I've given before since this question comes up every once in a while).
I was almost all digital music since the late 80's, and later ripped all my CDs to used a music server. I also added streaming. Now I could stream to my hi-fi system from the convenience of my listening sofa using my ipad or iphone. The world was my oyster! Endless choice at my finger tips. What could go wrong about that?
Well, human psychology can get in the way. It's like asking
"Hey, you love the chocolate cake made by your favorite bakery, right? Well, how about having that EVERY DAY?
Why wouldn't that be PERFECT?" It's a "seemed like a good idea at the time/be careful what you ask for" scenario.
I found myself constantly surfing music, as I would the internet, flicking to the next song, saving favourites I rarely re-visited, because there was always something new at my fingertips. I rarely listened to a full album. I had "Music ADD." I felt more disconnected from the music.
Further, digital music is absolutely ubiquitous: it's coming out of my desktop computer, my phone, from our smart speaker in the kitchen, our car. It's just constantly there and available and especially with streaming it's like music has become more like wallpaper, something in the background. Something cheap, endlessly available. Less special.
I found getting back in to vinyl solved my "music ADD." When I put on a record I feel more focused on the task of just listening to music. I virtually always get through an entire album side, and usually the full album. So while person A who isn't in to vinyl may find the "effort" a "distraction" to the music, person B may find it actually aids their focus on the music. I'm in the latter category.
I find I enjoy the physical aspects of actually holding the music in my hand when I pick up a record. Of seeing it transcribed in the grooves. Conceptually, it's really cool. A vinyl record in my hand can bring on nostalgia (e.g. one of the records I still own from my youth) or it can have "the thrill of the new" - a pristine, newly pressed, gorgeously packed just-released soundtrack in vinyl for instance. Holding a brand new beautifully designed album provides me FAR more pleasure than just tapping the screen yet again on my iphone.
And the fact it costs more for an album, as well as tracking down music on vinyl I want, means my music collection is more closely curated. I'm more connected to my music collection, I know it better, and I only have music I love.
I also like how buying new vinyl means more money going to the artist, rather than the pittance they get from streaming. It's one reason my brother, like so many musicians these days, is selling his music on vinyl. He can actually make a bit of money for his work. Most bands now want to release their music on vinyl. It's not only that they can make more money selling vinyl vs streaming. These days even many young musicians say that for them, holding their completed album in physical form, on a vinyl album, feels like the ultimate sense of "completion" and satisfaction. Rather than the music simply being sent off in to the digital ether. Humans have connections to physical things. Many young people who only ever interacted with music as 1s and 0s are discovering how this can change their relationship to their music.
And...turntables! Turntables are just COOL! (If you are in to them). I went all out and bought a neato turntable and it gives me an aesthetic, conceptual and tactile "kick" every time I use it. I get to interact with this cool object every time I spin music. Which, again, just pressing another button on my computer or swiping another "screen" is hardly a thrill these days.
In fact, playing vinyl allows me to unplug from the digital world. I'm on computers all day long, my phone tugging for attention all day long. Listening to a record is like taking a break from interacting with yet-more-god-damned-screens. Like reading a real book instead of picking up the ipad again.
Finally there is the sound.
Vinyl tends to sound different than digital. When I had my original modest turntable, I enjoyed the sound of vinyl as a different alternative to digital. When I upgraded my turntable vinyl sounded even better...fantastic actually. It sounded for the most part super clear and vivid, like my digital music, but also with a slight bit of "texture/tone" to the sound that I actually often preferred. Not always, but surprisingly often. (I have a good digital set up, Benchmark DAC 2L etc).
PLUS, the way you can fiddle with the sound - different cartridges, cartridge settings, impedances and all that, scratches the "fun to tweak" audiophile itch in me, where my digital front end is just sort of set-and-forget.
So FOR ME, vinyl provides a significantly richer overall experience in terms of collecting and listening to music. I love the physical form, the art, holding albums in my hand, I love owning a neato turntable, I feel more connected to the music "physically" owning it, playing vinyl leads me to relax and focus better on just listening to music, and I get fantastic sound quality in the bargain.
Plus...I still have my digital to stream whenever I want to. (Which I still do).
As for the wider revival: yes there is a certain portion of "some people getting in to it because it's cool now." But for the most part you will find many elements of my experience repeated over and over from people who have got in to vinyl, whether it's long time audiophiles or young people who had become "dulled" by the ease and ubiquitous access to digital music, who find all sorts of pleasure from owning music in a physical form (and supporting artists, etc). If you go to, for instance, the reddit vinyl forums, you'll see posts every day by people just getting in to vinyl - often younger people - and how thrilled they are to own albums, to hunt them down, how much they like their newfangled turntable, etc.
This is why it's gone far past the point of "fad" and has been in an upward trajectory for around 15 years, with no signs of stopping.
Hope that helps you understand why other people are buying vinyl, even if it holds no appeal to you.
My turntable
