Is Vinyl Worth It? Should I Get a Record Player?

What with the veritable boom in enthusiasm for the vinyl record format seeing new peak after new peak, you would be forgiven for asking yourself personally, is vinyl worth it? As with anything, you will have to take into account plenty of personal factors, for each and every vinyl record collector will be different and each and every vinyl collector’s personal circumstances will vary, sometimes wildly.

It should be remembered and held dear that this type of long term investment isn’t for everyone. This is inherently antiquated technology and in this way owning a record player doesn’t really suit some people, perhaps being at odds with their socio political circumstances and / or their pace of life, their contempt for personal belongings or simply their financial means.

What’s doubtless is that vinyl record collecting is back in a very, very big way. The last few years have seen vinyl record sales soar, with higher sales statistics than there have been for several decades, since the original decline in their sales with the advent of more digital oriented recorded and release technologies.

This soar in sales has been so drastic that the very factories that print the records have, of late and plenty of times in the past decade, been over encumbered with new releases, meaning vinyl enthusiasts are left waiting months for said factories to work through a huge backlog of releases.

The Pros and Cons: Is Vinyl Worth It?

Every single record enthusiast will be ever varied, and this is no doubt part of the beauty of the vinyl boom. This means that each and every record collector will be different in their musical taste, meaning that each and every record collection will be in some way unique and special to each individual collector. Herein lies likely one of the most attractive aspects of collecting in this way, with each collection being a specific representation of the individual, an extension of their unique selves as expressed through things.

Likewise, the individual circumstances of each record collector will be just as varied, and will require each and every collector to carefully assess their own personal circumstances, to judge whether collecting vinyl in the first place is right for them, and to answer their own positing of the question, is vinyl worth it?

Pro #1 – The Feeling, The Nostalgia

There is something utterly unique about the vinyl collecting and listening experience, that not only can’t be attained with CDs and digital downloads or streaming, but can’t even really be found in other more analog mediums such as cassette tapes.

The feeling is rooted deep in almost every aspect of the experience, inherently so because the vinyl record is such a physical medium. We pick them up, assess them, look at the covers deeply, judge other collections (whether we mean to or not), feel the cover in our hands and under the touch of our finger tips and palms; some record covers are even textured, making this even more of a sensory affair.

As if this could become any more of a sensory experience than it already is! Excusing the sound, which most would argue is the most important aspect at play here, almost every sense is involved in assessing and absorbing the entire package of a vinyl record, not least our senses of smell. Much like an old book, an old vinyl record will harbour a very specific aged smell that, in the nostrils of a vinyl enthusiast, will find a fervent home and wide open arms.

This smell is indeed enough to incense even the most level headed and sane record enthusiast into a purchase that they might not otherwise have involved themselves in! I know my sensory perceptions have been triggered in this way when purchasing a book or record, the smell taking me elsewhere, far, far away from my typical mental faculties.

Pro #2 – The Sound Itself

Forgetting all of the multi sensory aspects of the vinyl product as a whole such as the smell and the touch, we might be forgiven for still asking, is vinyl worth it?

A major aspect of the experience of collecting and listening to vinyl records is the sound itself, what the format can do for the inherent mixing and production of a record before being mastered to any specific medium. This is rendered doubly important when we stop to remember that the reason a vinyl record exists in the first place is to capture and preserve a sound on recording so that it may be listened to again by others.

This near fetishization is to the point where even the inherent faults of the medium are dearly cherished by enthusiasts of this calibre. These include but are not limited to the various hisses and crackles that rear their heads on vinyl recordings, as well as the warmth of the medium itself.

Because of the materials involved and the need to limit the frequencies so as not to disturb the mastering process, the vinyl record acts as a conduit for warmer sounds typically, big beats, blasted reggae and the like.

Pro #3 – Vinyl Records are a Display

This doesn’t necessarily infer that your vinyl record collecting habits are all merely for show – not entirely at least. To refer to vinyl records as being a display in this way simply implies something inherently visual about them.

Their size for one thing is large, far larger than even your phone, which is more than likely the place where the large majority of your music collection has resided or presently resides. And this is just one record!

Certainly, music streaming formats and other digital music formats such as the CD make way for the exhibition of one’s collection, but this is nowhere more evident than it is for a vinyl collection. The size of the records makes them almost like small pieces of art, hence why the covers were originally so often called album art.

It’s rare for many people in this society, moving at the fast pace that they do, to stop and really listen to music in the same way as they might have in the first advent of vinyl recording technology, so marred are we by buzzing and ringtones etc. The whole bubble of collecting vinyl is emblematic of a stand against that, a way for people to enter into another place and escape the ever increasing demands of the day to day.

Pro #4 – You are Likely to Hear More and More Music.

This is certainly not true for every single record store, as some are far more worth their salt than others. However, those record stores that I frequent, are harbingers of varied and eclectic sound palettes, meeting places for the most disparate and varied composers and producers throughout the world.

If you are unused to this sort of thing then you are bound to be utterly overwhelmed by a record store when you first enter their doors. I, for one, tend to spend several hours inside, and if I’m not buying I’m more than likely taking plenty of notes for records I want to check out through streaming platforms or other means.

Buying records is not only an amazing way to explore a variety of records and record collection that you might not otherwise come across, a collection curated differently by each individual record store owner, but it is also a way to support monetarily the music industry at large. Do you like this band? How much, exactly? Why not show them how much you like them by supporting them and allowing them to continuing doing what they love and making what you love?

Is vinyl worth it? It certainly is if it means your favorite band or artist can keep doing what they do best – lord knows they aren’t going to make enough through streaming platforms.

Con #1 – Storage and Maintenance

There can certainly be a lot to think about if you are seriously considering collecting vinyl, hardly any more important than the safe storage of your collection at all times.

Not only can this record collection take up so much space, records being far larger than almost every other music format, but it can also get damaged if not cared for. The environment that a record collection rests in should be carefully considered as certain constant temperatures and levels of humidity can have a highly detrimental effect on the album sleeve and the disc itself.

Vinyl record discs can also fall to ruin if not nurtured properly. As a collector you ought to regularly clean and groom your records so that they last longer, whether for use or simply survival. If you are new to vinyl and are wondering where to start with the care of your collection you can take a look at the complete care vinyl cleaning kit

The encumbrance of this format, as well, is how static it can be. Sure, there are certain devices that can help you transport your listening experience with vinyl records to the outside world, but none that will truly sound like they might on your home system. In comparing the way that digital means such as phones or mp3 players can make your favorite music so portable in comparison to those for records, the latter will pale and will barely be worthy of note.

Con #2 – The Cost

This is a fairly obvious point to be making but it is nonetheless essential. If you are here asking ‘is vinyl worth it?’ and you would be starting a vinyl collection with a slim budget then chances are the answer is likely to be a light to strong ‘no’. It’s certainly a luxury, seeing as we are so far into the future from the time when this was a wholly relevant piece of technology, but it is worth enough for people to still want to invest so much money into it.

Records are typically around $20 these days when they’re released brand new. Now, when compared to how much we might be spending on music streaming platforms or even CD copies this seems utterly ridiculous, though I might suggest it is a necessary evil. Music streaming is all well and good, but if you are only using this service and not putting very much back into the music industry, you are effectively cucking the free expression of a whole host of your favorite artists.

Streaming only favors large artists, for whom these platforms were set up in the first place, and it’s through actual merchandise like physical format music and t-shirts etc that any real artists actually make a living doing what they love.

This is also to completely neglect the fact that so many records can be bought for very reasonable prices second hand, through dozens of outlets and, what with the ever presence of the internet, it has never been easier to source a specific record for a reasonable price, nor has it ever been cheaper to buy a decent quality turntable and stereo system.

Con #3 – Crackling and Inherent Audio Distortions

Now this is a point of much contention between music collectors and enthusiasts, some in favor of these distortions and some firmly against them.

This is an inherent part of the deal with vinyl records, there is really no escaping it, so if you are an audio purist who can’t bear the sound of any distortions or manipulations of the pure source audio then quickly! avert your ears!

However, I might argue, and have argued previously in this very article, that this hiss and crackle is what gives it so much life, and is what makes the format still so endearing to many today, as though the format itself is alive and aging alongside you and your avid musical enthusiasm.

I might also argue that there is no pure audio source, really. There is no one way to listen to music that manages to negate all of the questions and negligence of other mediums, the questions that trying to translate sound from source to audio raises. Every pair of ears is different and so will believe in and hear different things. The best we can do is embrace this difference and respect our own opinion.

Final Tones

So, there you have it, a large, comprehensive, and, I hope, informative and useful guide to navigating and sussing out the world of vinyl record collecting from the get go.

Is vinyl worth it? Well, that’s for you to decide yourself, based on all these factors!

FAQs Is Vinyl Worth It?