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And this period of the 20th century was very important for this sector. That’s when the cheap turntable became available to large crowds and, of course, that’s when the first real pop and rock stars appeared. As a result, recorders – that is, vinyl records, which the common parlance mistakenly called vinyl – were bought by the millions.
It is no exaggeration to say that there were at least one or two such discs in almost every home and by definition this format was also very popular in Hungary.
Dark Age
The golden age lasted until the late 1970s. In 1979, the Walkman appeared and turned everything upside down in no time. And in 1982 “another hit” came, the CD was released, and those two standards dug the graves of vinyl for the next tight decade.
Sales fell dramatically, with major manufacturers closing their factories one by one, and in 1990, the record was practically a dying technology.
And the next decade and a half was marked by slow agony. During this period, only fanatic collectors, high-end audio freaks, and DJs kept the records alive. Thanks to them, all black discs were also printed at this time, but only with a signal value, in a very limited number of copies. When digital streaming, downloading, and file sharing appeared en masse around the turn of the millennium, everyone thought vinyl records were really playing. It is a fact that there was a good chance that the radically declining demand from carriers that actually existed in your physical reality would finally carry out this procedure that had once been seen on more beautiful days. But it didn’t happen that way.
Resurrection
In 2007, the vinyl record unexpectedly became fashionable again in the receptive subcultures of Western European and American cities. The trend started underground and soon became connected to mainstream communities as well, and by 2010 there were so many vinlys that they were unprecedented until 1990. In the following years, the number of records sold increased steadily and radically. And the tech industry has responded.
Major manufacturers have returned to this segment with new turntables like Technics. Others, like Sony or Neubilt, who have built record new plants after decades. They were simply necessary. In 2015, for example, the number of records sold increased by 52 percent compared to 2014. This meant that in a single year, half of the records were sold than in 1990-2007 combined.
Many expected the trend to stifle that, like other fads, the “vinyl renaissance” would be just a passing outbreak. Hipsters will then cut their mustaches, cover up their tattoos, put the skateboard in the closet, and launch Spotify on their phone if they want to listen to music. However, this also turned out to be a total error.
Invisible peaks
The revival of vinyl has been going on for over a decade, and something happened in the first half of 2020 that hasn’t been seen since the mid-1980s, to be exact, since 1986: During this period, vinyl records they were sold in the United States at a higher value than CDs. Also, the difference is not small, since people bought vinyl for 232 million dollars, compared to a CD for 130 million dollars. Glossy black records, by the way, accounted for 70 percent of the total physical sound recording market, so it’s safe to say they will dominate this sector this year.
The catastrophic performance of the EC is explained by many to the coronavirus. That is, people in this area have also turned to Internet solutions. However, this is contradicted by the fact that vinyl sales were also able to grow in 2020.
In any case, the fact is that the market is dominated by online streaming, with revenue of $ 4.8 billion in the first six months of 2020, or 85 percent of total revenue.
What’s in the background?
Many people do not understand what may be behind the resurrection of vinyl records, as these media are large, delicate and difficult to handle. Last but not least, they are significantly more expensive, as are CDs or albums available in fully digital format. However, the success can be explained by several reasons.
Fashion : He grew up in a generation that had never encountered shiny black plates before. So they are not considered “old” but, on the contrary, new and exciting. In the first period, that is, between 2007 and 2010, this was clearly one of the main drivers of the increase in demand for vinyl. There is nothing to beautify the thing, vinyl has become fashionable. It was possible to thrive on a new social media record, record exchanges were a social event where it was stylish to appear. There were even many examples of people buying Bakelite who didn’t even have a record player at home. And it also follows that the Bakelite resurrection was mainly due to young people, which previously seemed unthinkable.
Sound quality: Vinyl, unlike CDs or archives, is based on analog technology. As a result, many are convinced that the sound quality produced by the discs is significantly better than that offered by rival solutions. The fact that vinyl sounds “different” than CDs or FLAC files, but if they are better, is a matter of taste. But in any case, it mattered a lot in the repeated vinyl boom as well. By the way, at Origo Tech Base we really like the fresh, warm and organic sound produced by the “bucks”.
Rite: An important aspect is that many people love vinyl records because they like to hold them, nurture them, smell them. Also, large covers look much better than CDs in a plastic case. It also has a kind of ritual of how you put the black record on the record, align the needle, and start playback. It really is an incomparable feeling, which is confirmed by our own experience. Plus one more point on the side of the records, that is exactly why this rite is a listening really dedicated to music, because it is when you put the record on, sit down, listen, turn around, surrender to the music and forget of the world in a hurry for half an hour.
What will the future bring?
It is not easy to predict, as we do not know what changes the global epidemic will bring to the consumer electronics industry. How much financial opportunities for potential buyers are dwindling, and how publishers, musicians and bands are going through this difficult period. We personally believe that the trend will not stop, it will not change. The enthusiasm for traditional records will not be broken, but growth will continue. By now, it has finally been proven that a technology being old is not necessarily a bad thing, and may indeed have a place in the 21st century.
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