The resurgence of vinyl - will it put all the other formats to bed?

It is few years now that vinyl records are soaring back, pushing back CDs to a ‘minority,’  with cassettes barely alive, and getting closer to streaming services. There are a number of reasons behind this resurgence, with a big question looming - will it completely do away with other physical formats?

The answer to that question is a bit more complicated that many think, but one is quite obvious - it probably will not, with quite a few reasons why. Here are some thoughts concerning this dilemma.

As RIAA's (Recording Industry Association of America) 2022 year-end revenue report notes, Vinyl records made up 71% of physical media revenue that year and had outsold CDs for the first time since 1987, in addition to having 16 consecutive years of growth.

Many would think that it is the older generations fueling this vinyl growth, but it is also the younger generations, with the idea that the vinyl records sound superior (with all the wear and tear they suffer after each play). Also, the size of vinyl and the possibility of presenting the cover art, lyrics and liner notes in a more presentable way come into play.

Vinyl: A matter of fidelity

Yet, the question remains: Is that fidelity of vinyl records, due to the original analog recording sources, still there?

Sure, it has been established that analog sources that original vinyl records were based on (like the tapes and guitar amps too) surpass the sound quality of CDs. Yet, what was the case with original analog sources that are being reissued on vinyl every day by a dozen, the more recent and current releases come from practically all digital sources - digital microphones, DACs, computers and all other recording elements involved.

Actually, this digitalization process has been going on since the mid-seventies (1976, to be precise), replacing analog elements almost entirely. Even when analog fans among artists like Neil Young and Jack White resort to making their recordings on analog tapes, somewhere in that process the digital elements creep in.

So, at some point, to present music on vinyl records these days some sort of a compromise has to be made as far as the sound is concerned — a problem that CDs and streaming don’t have as they present the sound as it was originally recorded.

The problem there is that the dynamic range and soundstage on more ‘modern’ recorded music presented on vinyl is restricted in comparison to CDs and streaming music. Professionals also claim that things like bass limitations and higher frequencies are also present in new vinyl recordings, and what also has to be considered is the problems turntables themselves create, like wow and flutter and dust and dirt.

So, maybe CD’s are not that bad after all? Sure, they are not, but in the end, it is all to the ear of the beholder, as music listening is a very subjective thing, and so is record, CD or cassette collecting, and width all the dominance of streaming these days, the resurgence of vinyl records will not kill other music formats, and after all, it shouldn’t