Go to your local record store \u2014 every good town should have one \u2014 and try to find\u00a0Justin Bieber\u2019s\u00a0Believe<\/em>, which sold almost 1,500,000 copies in 2012. Nothing?<\/p>\n Okay, try again. See if you can find anything by Nickelback. Nada? Okay, now see if you can find anything by The Pixies. What, an entire shelf\u2019s worth? Why do you think that might be?<\/p>\n Simple economics, my friend. People who listen to vinyl tend to be quite discerning with what they listen to. They don\u2019t listen to airy, saccharine, Top 40 guff with synthesized instruments. They listen to bands that have artistic integrity, and actually write their own songs and play their own instruments. They listen to great songwriting and\u00a0have an ear for production. As a result, bands that meet those criteria are the ones you\u2019ll find in your record shop.<\/p>\n When you listen to vinyl exclusively, you unconsciously make the decision to never, ever have to be confronted with Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. And that\u2019s lovely.<\/p>\n In a tucked-away corner of my hometown is a small, independent record store called\u00a0Probe Records. This has been a Liverpool institution for the longest time. Generations of Scousers have grown up visiting this place, and spending hours upon hours wandering through their expansive collection. Myself included.<\/p>\n There\u2019s something wonderful about buying records. It\u2019s the type of experience that is sadly lost on the iTunes and Spotify generation. Sorry, folks. This one isn\u2019t up for debate. Vinyl sounds better than MP3s ever could. I\u2019m not just talking about that warm, mahogany-rich sound that vinyl is famous for, but in general. It\u2019s just better. It doesn\u2019t matter whether you\u2019re listening to a streaming service like Spotify (but not Tidal, which streams in lossless), or an MP3, or even to the radio. You\u2019re still not getting the full picture of that track.<\/p>\n Vinyl is what\u2019s called a lossless format. Nothing has been lost when pressing a record. It sounds as good as the producer or band intended.<\/p>\n There\u2019s another, much more important, the reason why vinyl is better than anything else. When you buy an MP3 on iTunes, there is no way you can turn that purchase into an investment that makes you money at a later date. That\u2019s because you don\u2019t\u00a0own<\/em>\u00a0that particular MP3. You merely license it.<\/p>\n But, vinyl? That\u2019s an entirely different beast altogether.<\/p>\n There\u2019s an entire industry of people purchasing, collecting, and reselling vinyl, because overwhelmingly it keeps its purchase value, or even appreciates in value.<\/p>\n When you collect vinyl, you\u2019re not just buying music. You\u2019re making an investment you can sell on a rainy day, or even pass down to your children. Let\u2019s play a game Go to your local record store \u2014 every good town should have one \u2014 and try to find\u00a0Justin Bieber\u2019s\u00a0Believe, which sold almost 1,500,000 copies in 2012. Nothing? Okay, try again. See if you can find anything by Nickelback. Nada? Okay, now see if you can find anything by The Pixies. What, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/post-4.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpm12.cscomp.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Record Buying Is an Experience<\/h2>\n
\nIt\u2019s the type of experience where you show up and spend hours upon hours aimlessly looking for music. You take gambles, and you drop money on albums not knowing whether they\u2019ll be good or not. You speak to people and get to know their recommendations and opinions, and ultimately make friends.
\nIt\u2019s a vastly more social experience than any app or online marketplace could\u00a0ever<\/strong>\u00a0be.<\/p>\nVinyl Sounds Better<\/h2>\n
\nMost of the music you listen to is stored and broadcast in a lossy format, where details are lost and quality is reduced. This is because\u00a0audio is compressed\u00a0in order to make it small enough to shove on a phone, or to broadcast over the airwaves.<\/p>\n
\nVinyl, for the most part, escaped the \u2018loudness war\u2019. You see, with the rise and rise of digital music (CDs included), it has become possible to\u00a0artificially engineer\u00a0a track louder than it naturally should be. The problem here is that it has a massively detrimental result on audio quality.
\nIndeed, it causes songs to sound distorted and become unpleasant to listen to, and strips them of their depth and texture. Because vinyl is an analog format, it\u2019s doesn\u2019t really suffer from the same problems. Don\u2019t believe me? Check out this comparison between the CD version of the Red Hot Chili Peppers\u2019\u00a0Hump de Bump<\/em>, and the vinyl version.<\/p>\nVinyl Can Make You Money<\/h2>\n
\nThere are even apps and websites \u2014\u00a0such as MyRecordList\u00a0\u2014 that make the process that much easier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"