Teens Prefer Vinyl to CDs
When you carry your complete music collection in your pocket, there is an unintended consequence: you disconnect from the music. Without the physical object of the cd/record, the album art, and the physical act of putting the disk in the player, digital music can’t help but be less of an experience. I love my iPod, don’t get me wrong, but listening to music on an iPod is much different than playing vinyl.
So it didn’t really surprise me that a recent study showed that teens prefer vinyl to cd. Is it any wonder that there is a backlash forming against the digital revolution? Is it surprising that the youth, the trend setters, are the ones leading the vinyl comeback? I don’t think so. While the story itself is interesting, what is really enlightening is that the story got Dugg and a conversation with of over 250 comments was started. It is fascinating to hear the diverse opinions on the subject – from ambivelant to enraged. You should go over to Digg and read them yourselves, but here are a few comments that show the vinyl vs. cd denate is still live and well:
vordhosbn said:
personally, i am a big fan of vinyl records. i am also a big fan of my 60gb ipod and my large collection of mp3s. however, in a day and age when we can have 60gb worth of music in a tiny little electric box, you often lose sight of just how special music can be when you are listening to 6 albums in a row.
for this reason, i enjoy collecting records because when i listen to a record, i am taking time out to listen to it. i have to take it out of its sleeve, blow off the dust, place it on the turntable, and put on the needle. you have to pay attention to the music when its on vinyl because once side A is done, you have to flip it to side B. the whole experience makes the music much more enjoyable.
TimorousMe said:
If you’re really into music or you pride yourself on your music collection, then vinyl is very attractive, and can be preferable to cds. If you’re just a casual music listener then there would be little to no appeal to vinyl. Nevertheless, there is still definitely a market for vinyl out there.
dr-steve said:
…Older music is, basically, more musical and less formulaic. Quoting the last sentence of the article,
“They characterized LPs and the LP artists of the past as more authentic than the
barrage of youth-oriented music being aggressively marketed to them today.”
This is a direct slam against the manufactured and marketed sounds, bands being constructed and tuned to meet Marketing Needs.
