It’s easy to think that vinyl records died decades ago, but in reality, they continue to have a fanbase that insists they are one of the best ways to enjoy music. Naturally, it being an older form of technology that still has its uses, there are bound to be pros and cons of owning them. What are the pros and cons of owning vinyl records?
One major pro of owning vinyl records is the uniquely warm sound that no other media format has. A major con to vinyl is that it requires maintenance and careful storage due to how fragile they are. The hobby isn’t for everyone, but that’s okay!
Vinyl records are certainly unique and are a rewarding form of media to collect, but not everyone will enjoy them as much as others. We will be going more in-depth on the pros and cons of owning vinyl, so if you’d like to learn more, we encourage you to keep reading.
Why Do People Still Use Vinyl?
There are a number of reasons why there is a group of people who buy vinyl records over, let’s say, streaming music on Spotify. Some people think that this is crazy, but it’s not any crazier than collecting pretty much anything else. In order to not spoil a lot of the upcoming pros and cons section, we will give a couple of the biggest reasons why people buy vinyl records.
It’s important to understand that since vinyl is both unique and a physical product that you can hold and collect, for this alone, there are a lot of people who love vinyl.
Next, there are a group of people who prefer the way vinyl sounds. They aren’t necessarily objectively better than high-quality digital music files, they are just different, and some love the unique sound of it.
Finally, some people get into it because it is trendy. They like being part of something unique, and there is nothing wrong with that. Getting into any hobby exposes you to a new community to engage with. And don’t forget that the more people buying records, the more companies see the demand for them.
If you’ve been considering collecting vinyl records but aren’t sure it is worth it for you, then you probably asked yourself what the advantages and disadvantages are – in fact, that’s why you are here! Without further ado, let’s get into it!
Pros of Owning Vinyl Records
Because there are people who love vinyl, they obviously have their benefits. We will be going into the pros of owning vinyl records. Some of the reasons might surprise you!
It’s a Pure Listening Experience
This isn’t referring to audio quality, rather listening to vinyl demands that the user directs their full attention to it. Instead of selecting a song to stream on Spotify, you deliberately have to take the vinyl out of its sleeve and place it on your record player. After you are done, you place it back into its sleeve and back onto the shelf.
Because of the extra steps to listen to music via vinyl (not to mention the cost, but more on that later), you are much more likely to give it your full attention rather than setting it as background music. If you just want background music, then Spotify is probably the better choice (especially since it is completely free with unlimited skips on PC).
You Have a Physical Product That You Own
In the age where digital music has taken over, and not just digital, but streaming music specifically, owning your media in a physical format is something that isn’t very common nowadays.
But people often forget the psychological and usefulness of having your music physically. Your collection is yours, you can display it on a shelf, and you have the freedom to sell what you don’t want anymore or trade with others.
Vinyl is especially special in this case because it draws attention. If you have people over and see your vinyl collection, it can be a conversation piece. Maybe you might get someone into collecting vinyl!
Nothing Else Sounds Like Vinyl
Vinyl is an analog form of music, and thus it has a quality to it that is different from digital music.
It’s important to understand that vinyl doesn’t sound objectively better than high-quality lossless digital audio (or 320 kbps streamed music for the matter). And so you shouldn’t get your hopes up for music that sounds like it is being played on audiophile-level stereo speakers.
It CAN sound better than digital music depending on the setup simply due to the fact that there is no loss in audio quality because of being analog. But mostly, vinyl just sounds different. It has what is described as a “warm” sound to it with quirks that people like, such as occasional crackling (which you hear in many Lo-Fi hip hop tracks).
Below, we’ve linked a video that explains the pros and cons of vinyl audio quality if you’d like more insight on this topic.
Valuable
This part ties into the fact that vinyl is a physical form of media. Some records can be worth a decent sum of money if not a lot of them have been made. Even today, you can snag limited-release records and sit on them for years until they fetch a good price.
You may even accidentally discover that you have a valuable vinyl in your collection one day. Granted, given the fact the cost quickly adds up when collecting vinyl records, you likely won’t be saving money unless one of your records is especially valuable. Still, it’s nice to know that the hobby can potentially give back.
In-Store Shopping Experience
Going to a store and browsing through physical media is another thing that has been largely lost in modern times unless we are talking about video game stores. Sure, shopping online is very convenient, and no doubt that it has its place. But going to a vinyl record shop and flipping through the various records, deciding which ones you want to pick out is an experience that can’t be replicated by browsing around on Amazon.
And maybe you can bring a friend along if they are also into vinyl. That’s an added bonus of being into something where in-person browsing is part of the experience! And besides, you don’t know how well the delivery person will handle your fragile and precious records!
An Excellent Display Piece
You’ve probably noticed how huge the artwork on vinyl sleeves are. While vinyls may not be the most portable things ever, being 3 times the size of a CD, they make up for it with just how awesome of a display piece their covers are.
For many people, collecting vinyl is partly about collecting as much album artwork as possible.
Cons of Owning Vinyl Records
Vinyl is awesome, but there are reasons why people largely moved to CDs and eventually digital music. Some of these flaws with vinyl are more obvious than others, and so it is good to know what you are getting into before investing your money into the hobby.
Difficult to Transport
The sheer size of vinyl records are no secret. Like we said earlier, they are 3x the size of CDs, which have largely been phased out of the market due to how inconvenient they can be for transportation.
Vinyl records increase this problem x3 and are difficult to transport because of it. And the more vinyl you collect, the worse the problem becomes when you want to travel or move. Luckily, they are very thin and lightweight, but their size adds up relatively quickly.
Fragile
If you thought CDs were fragile, they are practically tanks in comparison to vinyl records. You have to be very careful with handling a vinyl due to the fact they are entirely dependent on the small grooves that go around the circumference of the record to function.
In a nutshell, how a record works is you have a small needle called the “stylus” that moves along these grooves. The grooves have to be exactly as intended when the record was made, or else you will quickly run into sound issues during playback. Slight bents are enough to cause unwanted sound issues such as excessive pops and skipping.
You also need to ensure that you are handling the records by the edges. Touching the main flat parts will lead to degradation over time due to the oils on our fingers.
In short, while vinyl sounds amazing, it is extremely easy to mess up a vinyl record, which can be very annoying, even more so that they aren’t exactly cheap, which leads us into the next con of owning vinyl records.
Owning Vinyl Records Gets Expensive
Vinyl used to be dirt cheap when CDs were still relevant, and people were relying on the iPod for their all-digital music needs. You could buy a Vinyl for under $5 back in 2007, but that quickly skyrocketed just a decade later, and now the average cost of one is anywhere between $20-$30.
Keep in mind that for $10 a month, you can get all the music you could ever want on Spotify, including complete albums. Heck, sometimes they offer 3 months for $10. There is a reason why people largely moved over to streaming.
But like we said earlier, ownership has its own benefits. You’ll just be paying a pretty penny for it with vinyl.
Why did vinyl records skyrocket in price? It’s because sales started to increase, and a culture was formed around them. People discovered that records aren’t obsolete, and they still have their place in music.
If you buy 10 records in the span of a year, you’ve likely sunk at least $200 and $900 at most. You are more likely to be closer to the latter since vinyl’s average cost is approximately $25 – $28. It’s not what we’d call a cheap hobby, and combined with the fact that records are fragile, you could be facing some unwanted losses if you are not careful.
It’s just important to know the cost before diving in. You are probably going to be spending more on the records themselves than the equipment. You can get a functional record player for just around $50, such as this Rybozen Record Player (link to Amazon). Decent stereo speakers don’t have to cost a fortune either.
You Have to Babysit Them During Playback
Because vinyl is an analog way of listening to music, you can’t exactly put them on an infinite loop. Once they have gone through all of the tracks on one side, you’ll need to flip it to the other to continue listening. And once that side is done, you’ll have to repeat the process again.
This issue makes records not ideal for falling asleep or as background music for extended listening sessions. You can rewind a vinyl record during playback, but this will wear out the needle more quickly.
Maintenance
When it comes to listening to digital music, you likely aren’t concerned with maintaining your equipment other than occasionally wiping off dust and trying not to break anything. But when it comes to vinyl record listening, you need to be on your toes when it comes down to maintenance.
First, dust isn’t an optional thing that you can ignore when talking vinyl. If you let it get out of hand, it will affect your listening experience. The records themselves need to be checked for dust before being played, and you need to keep an eye on the needle itself.
Speaking of the needle, you’ll need to change it eventually. They have a limited lifespan of approximately 1000 hours of playing time, which, to be fair, is a lot, but it’s something you need to be mindful of. This life expectancy can decrease if you use a low-quality needle and/or wear it out when trying to rewind or skip tracks.
Is Owning Vinyl Records Right for You?
We laid out the major pros and cons of owning vinyl; for some, the cons won’t matter too much because of the uniqueness that vinyl brings to their music experience. For others, they can be a dealbreaker simply because vinyl is the exact opposite of what most people are accustomed to these days.
To wrap things up, we will be going over who should start owning vinyl and who may not enjoy it.
Why You Should Own Vinyl Records
You want a unique music experience. As we said above, nothing sounds like vinyl, but not only that, nothing offers the overall experience of vinyl.
True analog vinyl records offer uncompressed audio that is arguably the closest to what the original music producer intended. It may not be absolutely perfect for everyone, but there is no denying that vinyl offers great audio quality overall that is unique to it.
And because vinyl is valuable these days, collecting it feels special, especially due to the fact that the sleeves they come in boast huge artwork that you simply can’t experience with all-digital music. Nothing feels like picking out a record to listen to and looking at the large artwork for the album before you take the record out of its sleeve and carefully placing it on the turntable.
If you consider yourself as someone who absolutely loves music, it is worth considering owning vinyl. There is a reason why it had such an explosion in popularity over recent years!
Why You Should Reconsider Owning Vinyl Records
You value convenience. These days, if you want to play a specific song or album, it’s as easy as telling a smart speaker to play it. No buttons, no tapping, every song is available through the power of your voice. If you don’t have a smart speaker, it’s still extremely easy to select whatever song you want through your favorite streaming service.
Or perhaps you prefer lossless audio files; all of your music is stored in one place and doesn’t take up any space at all.
The point we are trying to make is that owning vinyl is the exact opposite of how most people listen to music these days. While vinyl sounds great, so does modern digital music, and if you are someone who just wants to pick out a song or album, you likely won’t be too into the effort it takes to listen to a vinyl collection. Additionally, buying vinyl records gets expensive very quickly.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, owning vinyl has major pros but also major drawbacks. How much you feel the drawbacks will depend on how much you love vinyl. It’s an “old” form of technology that is still being used to this day despite the convenience of digital music. For that, it is worth consideration because it shows that there is a big reason why it hasn’t become obsolete!
If you have more questions on vinyl, consider checking out our other articles or exploring the many video sources that can help inform you of the realities of vinyl!
Be sure to check out our buyer’s guide for the best turntables under $200.