Transcript

Vinyl records Music’s thumbprint. It is a form of music that has existed since the late 1940s.

While it is one of the oldest forms of music, vinyl has seen an increase in sales over the past few years as sales reached 43.2 million records sold, reaching an all-time high since 1989.

But why vinyl over any other form of music? It’s so easy to pull out your phone, search for your favorite songs and artists and press play. The music quality is so much better compared to streaming music in my opinion . There is a better overall dynamic sound range that allows for the sound to be louder and clearer. As for streaming and CDs, they are compressed audio and cannot meet vinyl’s volumes.

The audio is warmer and broader, allowing the listener to hear their favorite albums in a new way

Owning music in its physical form is great if you want to grow closer to your music.

Jack White, legendary guitarist best known for his time with The White Stripes, owns his record-pressing company, Third Man Records. White says, “Vinyl is the real deal I’ve always felt like, until you buy the vinyl record, you don’t really own the album.”

Vinyl sales have nearly doubled from 2020 to 2022 at 43.5 million LPs being sold.
With vinyl on the rise, many factors can go into one’s setup, storage, and properly cleaning them.

Once you head home with your new vinyl, there are a few things you should do to keep the record and all of its contents in good condition.

Once you open up your new vinyl, cleaning the record immediately is important; you want to make sure to clean off any dust that the record may have collected during the pressing and packaging process

Once you have cleaned off the vinyl, you are going to want to put it in a soft protective sleeve. I recommend these protective sleeves by Vinyl style, they keep your records from getting damaged unlike paper or plastic sleeves, and reduce static build-up in the vinyl to ensure good sound quality.

First, you slide the album cover into the first sleeve, the lyric book or old sleeve behind it, and then lastly the actual record in its protective sleeve.

When putting all of your records you NEVER want to stack them on top of one another. Doing that will cause record warp, meaning the vinyl will take a new shape and become wobbly affecting the sound

You want to store them standing up vertically as that will help maintain the shape of the record

When you go to play the record it is important to clean it as well to maintain good sound quality

The artwork displayed on the front of the record allows the owner to appreciate the cover more,

There is also more that comes with an album when you own it physically such as a lyric book, artwork inside with double gatefold record sleeves and the actual record itself.

One of my favorite reasons to collect vinyl is the variety of special pressings of records that are released; unique colors and designs are released on the vinyl itself

While it is said that black vinyl is better for the overall sound, these still sound amazing and add to the overall experience of collecting your favorite albums.

After starting a record collection, another important factor is a turntable

There are a wide variety of turntables to choose from, but there are a few important things to keep in mind when investing in one

You don’t want to have your record collection ruined by using a cheap poorly-made turntable

Exhibit A are these suitcase record players, they damage your record in multiple ways by using too much tracking force on the needle, the tonearm is not aligned properly, having built-in speakers into the turntable within the turntable, and are very lightweight as they are made with low-quality plastics

What is most ideal is a heavy turntable made with lightweight metals that will not be disturbed or easy to move, speakers should be plugged in separately on a different surface as the turntable should be isolated