Vinyl Revival
A new wave of young collectors storms the market
“Supporting the artist as much as possible is huge,” said Tyler Dorsainvil, a 22-year-old college student and vinyl collector. “But simply as a music lover and growing audiophile, it adds to the experience of enjoying the art.”
Dorsainvil is far from alone in his love for the tangible quality of records. The old-school charm of static as the needle finds the groove and the poetic quality of owning an album as a piece of art have drawn Gen Z in.
The vinyl record industry serves as a prime example of novelty over innovation, defying all economic expectations by maintaining its market share despite decades of intense competition from new tech. The market has shown revenue growth for the past 16 years amounting to $1.2 billion in 2022, nearly a century after vinyl records were first introduced to the music industry in 1930.
After cassette tapes were introduced in 1962, the floodgates of innovation in music consumption opened. New tech brought more accessibility and convenience, confining the demand for records to the niche groups of collectors and audiophiles. It wasn’t until the recent vintage aesthetic trend and a significant expansion of collector communities that the vinyl market started to see a revival.
Despite seeing growth since 2006, the vinyl market had not experienced any significant jumps until a full resurgence in the late 2010s. This was influenced primarily by younger millennial and Generation Z demographics.
“I’ve been collecting since junior year of high school,” said junior Kinsey Hall. “I don’t listen to them that often. I feel like a lot of the records I have are kind of outdated for me and it’s hard to get new ones since they’re expensive.”
Hall is one of many Gen Z vinyl buyers with this attitude.
“Where older collectors’ interest is often limited by their passion for “the classics” and unfamiliarity with newer genres or artists, many younger collectors are limited by the high price of their expansive and dynamic tastes. ”
The appeal of vinyl records to the younger generations is occurring for several reasons, ranging from the effects of novelty to a passion for the art.
“I’ll look into our vinyl section on a busy day and see 15 people shopping and wonder, ‘are any of them old enough to drive?’” said Streetlight Records Store Manager Paige Brodsky. “For our team of buyers it introduces a new mission of having to understand their wide range of tastes.”
Younger generations grew up with seemingly endless access to music and, in turn, a greater and broader-spanning appreciation. Such a passion for the art makes physical ownership and engagement with the music appealing. Many of these new collectors, turntable owners or not, can be found on social collector-centered platforms, such as Discogs, trading, discussing and discovering music.
Growing appeal for the vintage aesthetic, the growth of the audiophile and overall music-lover communities and the popularization of collecting as a hobby or investment among millennials and Gen Z are all significant contributors to vinyl’s return into the market.
“Trends within the industry are hard to anticipate,” said Brodsky. “I hold solace in the fact that we are an independent store, unlike say Tower Records for example, so we are able to adapt pretty quickly where others can’t. I will say I see a good opportunity for CDs to make a comeback. LPs are big with younger collectors but are expensive compared to CDs which still offer that physical copy appeal with the cover art and liner notes.”
More and more artists are releasing their projects alongside multiple variations of records at different values with platforms such as Discogs, local vinyl shops and trend-following major retailers such as Urban Outfitters, creating a vast marketplace full of opportunities for artists and collectors alike.