The Pleasure of Vinyl

There is a key element missing in music consumerism today. As we have made the transition from vinyls to CDs to MP3s, the physical manifestation of our love of music has been lost. Looking back at vinyl, for instance, the expressive gatefold covers, almost as important as the music itself in some respects, created a whole experience around the music. One needs only to think of Roger Dean's famous paintings for most of the Yes albums, or Hypgnosis' design of Pink Floyd's covers as examples of this. With the miniaturization resulting in the transition to CDs, cover art became less important. Liner notes were initially abundant, but slowly degraded over to time to little more than a placeholder piece of paper. In the fully digital world, there is nothing left of this. Buying songs on iTunes, or downloading them illegally from Torrents or P2P apps is inherently less rewarding than ripping off the shrinkwrap from your favourite band's new album.

Vinyl had another interesting thing going for it, which most would see as a downside. Listening to a record was a very meticulous process which required proper care and tuning of the stylus, tracking weight of the arm, etc. The records themselves also required specific care in order to maintain optimal quality. Indeed, it was annoying at times, but it contributed to this physical connection to the music and, I believe, a deeper understanding and respect for it.

Last but not least, sound quality has not improved through the years whatsoever. Today's MP3 players don't sound as good (to an audiophile, of course...) as CD players did, due in part to the lossy compression. CDs lacked the warmth and natural sound of vinyls which, as I have argued in the past, have the potential for much higher audio quality than CDs do.

Remember McLuhan: The medium is the message...