Over the last couple of years, vinyl sales have increased dramatically. Whether it be the sound quality of vinyl or the cover art, it appears this popularity will not be going away anytime soon.

One reason for this trend is the collectible factor. When you listen to music on Spotify or Apple Music, for example, you are simply borrowing the music, similar to picking up a book from a library. With vinyl, you now own the music, you can hold it in your hands, collect it and share it with others. Additionally, many artists nowadays use this new trend and include cover art and liner notes exclusive to the vinyl. 

This resurgence can also be encouraged by the listening of older music. Many older albums made in the ‘60s, where record players were the main device used to listen to music, were made for this sort of non-skippable listening. So, many tracks would carry onto the next track which encouraged the idea of “concept albums,” whereas, today, many artists create albums single by single.

Of course, this leads to the question: does vinyl sound better than digital music? Well, not really. It really comes down to preference. To explain the science, vinyl narrows the difference between the quietest and loudest sounds which allows more room for loudness from other sounds. This explains why some vinyl listeners may describe this sound to be more lifelike and overall sounds better to them. 

This concept, however, of whether or not vinyl will sound better and ultimately what can influence your decision of starting a collection can come down to the artists’ intent or the way the music was made. Music made in the early 20th century up to the ‘70s used analog taping, a process considered fairly difficult, and meant artists of this time couldn’t experiment around with loudness, in fear it could ruin the music and cause damage to the needle of the turntable and jump through grooves crazily. Therefore, digital music, which is all recorded through computers now, can experiment with loudness, meaning the vinyl records of newer music can cause sounds meant to be loud to be quiet, and sounds can even start to sound distorted.