CDs vs Vinyl - A resurgence in old technology?

Originally published at: https://quickbox.io/blog/cds-vs-vinyl-a-resurgence-in-old-technology/

If you’re anything like me, then any brand new technology that is announced is something akin to hearing about when your best friend hooked up with someone. You’re proud, astonished, somewhat jealous but mainly happy. This is the same reaction that I’ve had with any new technology however, something that we haven’t seen any new breakthroughs with is music.

Nowadays, we all stream music through Apple Music, Spotify or if you’re really down with the cool kids, Tidal. However, these services are great if you want to listen to vast range of music, new music and quickly. However, one form of technology that hasn’t died and in fact, grown in the past few years in Vinyl.

I remember being around 10 or 11 years old and going out into the shop to purchase my first CD and getting home to put it into my music player so I could listen to the song.

I also remember my dad telling me to be careful with the CD as if I were to scratch it, then it wouldn’t play at all. As I’ve grown up, I’ve seen the value in having a music collection but not on CD. Vinyls offer an experience not just for your ears, but for everything.

Going over to a friends house, we put on the Rumours album by Fleetwood Mac and this was playing on a Vinyl record. It was absolutely fantastic just hearing all of the nuances of the recording, and hearing things that I just couldn’t hear when listening over Spotify due to compression and the Hz bandwidth too.

In addition, the idea of having to look after the Vinyl as well appeals to me, and having to slowly move the needle into the groove to hear the music. Something in which you don’t get with CDs.

I do believe that CDs were going to happen regardless of what was going on with music technology, however, Vinyl is something that I will always support because a lot of the money from Vinyl’s go to the artist and not to the record company, the agency, the streaming service too. CDs just seem too clinical for me and almost take the emotion out of spending an evening with friends, talking and chatting whilst listening to some music.

I’m not an audiophile, but I do appreciate good music (as a musician myself) and appreciate a good setup. I just feel CDs don’t offer the same level of connection to the music that Vinyls do and I am pleased that Vinyls are taking over sales of CDs currently and I wish they continue to do too.

What do you think? Do you prefer CDs over Vinyl? Next week, we’ll be going more into Streaming Services not just for Music, but for other things as well.