My very good friend and successful music producer DJ Rama was the man responsible for getting me into the world of vinyl collecting, and since the mid-00s we have been bound by our love of all things vinyl. Whilst vinyl records are going through something of a renaissance right now, there are still a great number of people who love music but haven’t opted to jump on the bandwagon and collect vinyl like so many have. If you are a big music fan then vinyl is really the purest form of collecting and here is why you are going to love it.
Album Listening
Something which the music-listening public seem to have moved away from is listening to album in their entirety and in truth it is very easy to see why. Given that we live in a world where we listen to music on-demand and we have an abundance of music at our fingertips, it is easier than ever to flick and switch from song to song, artist to artist. The same however cannot be said of vinyl and unless you plan on buying 2 turntables and a wealth of 45s, it is unlikely that you will be chopping and changing between genres. What this gives you therefore is the opportunity to listen to the whole record, as it was intended, and go on a journey with the album.
Falling In Love
One 0of the first things that I noticed once I started collecting was how much vinyl helps you to truly reconnect with the music. What I mean by this is that because it is so easy to hear all kinds of musicians and artists via Spotify or other streaming services, it can be very easy for us to take it for granted, and not really appreciate the music that is being made. The reason why all of those great songs and legendary hits got to the position they did is because there was less music around and people would listen to the same songs over and over again. In the world of streaming everything is disposable and that is why hits don’t last as long. When you go back to vinyl however, and you are handling and indulging in the music, you learn to love it once again.
Digging
When you are streaming music you are almost always looking for the thing that you have in your mind and rarely will you get surprised by a song or reminded of something which you used to enjoy. Given that fewer people are listening to the radio than ever before, this means that the likelihood of being reminded of old hits or artists is very low, which can leave us slightly narrow minded in our approach to music. When you are digging through crates of old records however you will find those little golden nuggets and memories which you thought had slipped away, and that is the one of the greatest feelings when you collect vinyl.
Why not go grab yourself a turntable and give it a try!