Nothing to see hear…

Over xmas I bought myself this rather iconic looking Bang & Olufsen music centre. It’s a Beocenter 7002 from 1980 or thereabouts.. so basically it’s as old as me.

Part of me knows this is silly – vinyl is cumbersome, fragile, and most of the records you can see in the picture don’t exactly sound good. I think they spent too long around me and my brothers judging by the finger marks, scratches, and occasional strange substances to be found.

But, I’m sold on the idea, and am sticking to my convictions, for several reasons…

Vinyl makes you care about what you’re listening to more than any medium. I’m listening to London Calling as I type, which has four sides. This interactivity, annoying to some, encourages me to sit and listen – to properly pay attention.

It looks fantastic in our living room! It’s now the centre piece, encouraging us to sit around and listen/talk about great records.

The CD is dead, long live Vinyl! Ok, bold statement, but hear me out.. CDs made a lot of sense at the time, but digital music has just evolved so well that the only reason you’d want to buy a CD is to own the artefact – which is clearly something lots of us still like to do. But in a world where we’re listening to music almost entirely on computers and iPods, to buy purely for the artefact’s sake is just so much more rewarding on 12″. 

The decline of physical CD sales has been on the cards for ages. Now it’s happening, people seem to be moaning about it. Personally, if CDs decline I don’t mind too much, provided I can get high quality digital files, and provided I can still buy vinyl for my collection.

If vinyl can survive 20 years of CD dominance, and still be the first thing you see when you walk into Rough Trade East, for instance, then I think it’ll be around for a while yet. 

Here’s to wishful thinking anyway.