Kennedy, 19, posing with some familiar records he found in Moorpark's Radio Control room. Photo by Caleb Sperling
For as long as vinyl records have been tossed out as yesterday’s technology in a practical “one man’s trash…” fashion, many vinyls are still getting picked up by music fans and collectors. Those numbers are rising.
Although there are now countless different files types for music and tons of devices to play them, it seems that when the idea of buying a new record comes about, People (Moorpark college students included) are reverting back to the format of needle and groove and opting to buy vinyl, causing a resurgence in sales for the seemingly dead technology.
“They don’t sound better in quality, they just sound better.” Devin Shanahan said.
Shanahan is a freshman at Moorpark and has been producing music for over a year, he has been around music and people in the music business his whole life. Vinyl records are anything but new technology. Although music compression and record distribution nowadays is able to deliver the highest studio-quality sound right to your computer, people are deciding to downgrade in their listening experience. According to the British Recorded Music Industry BPI, Vinyl sales in the first quarter of this year were up over 75%, making it the third consecutive gain.
From ease of using samples in new music productions to the feel-good idea and practice of throwing a record on, it seems that more and more people are making the decision to stick with the past instead of leaping into the present.
“Sampling is fun, you can take something that’s finished and restart it