If you love music then now is the perfect time to jump on the vinyl bandwagon. I have been collecting vinyl for over 30 years now and it is a hobby which has very much taken over my life. There is just something so special about this format of listening to music and the whole notion of collecting it and enjoying it more than digital music is something which I love. If this has peaked your interest, here is why you need to start collecting wax.
Meeting People
The first thing that I want to say about this is that record collectors are very much a community and you can meet some very cool people when you get started. My next door neighbor Dr. Ian Weisberg and I didn’t speak for the first 3 years that we lived next to each other, with the exception of the odd hello. The reason for this is that we are just different people but one day I returned from the record store, he spotted the bag, and as it turns out, he is a collector too, needless to say we have had many a late night since.
Experience
Listening to a record isn’t like listening to digital music where you just search and click a button, there is real theater to listening to an LP. When you listen to an LP you select your record, slide it out of its sleeve, carefully place it on the turntable and then lower down the needle until you hit the right groove. There is a real drama to playing a record versus any other type of music and it is easy to fall in love with. What I also love is the information which you will find on the record sleeve, something which digital music simply can’t repeat. I love nothing more than sitting and reading through the info on the record covers and for me it forms part of the overall experience.
Abundance
Vinyl music has almost been around for 100 years and that means that there is a plethora of discs still in circulation. In the 1980s many people ditched vinyl in favor of CDs and most went to friends, stores or charity shops rather than being thrown out. The result of this is that you can find LPs all over the world which are from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond. Even better is that the demand for vinyl, despite its newly found popularity, far outweighs the supply which means that you can get your hands on just about anything that you are looking for.
Price
This can be a hobby which costs you a lot of money but it really doesn’t have to be and you can pick up some great records for dirt cheap prices. Very often you can go record shopping, bring back 10 albums and have change in your pocket from a $20 note.
What are you waiting for, go get digging through those records!
