Vinyl is heavy, fragile, and difficult to transport. Vinyl is expensive, requires a lot of money, and must be handled with care. Vinyl is a zero on the scale of listening comfort. Why bother with vinyl? Audiophiles keep vinyl alive for a good reason. The medium is not as convenient, but it compensates for this with its sonic quality.
It is important to cater to your listeners’ preferences as a musician. When planning the launch of your new album, you cannot ignore audiophiles who love vinyl. However, it should not be a “grudge press”…not at all. You are giving your album a unique and special experience by pressing vinyl.
The lossless medium
Vinyl sounds better. I’ll explain why. Vinyl is referred to by many as a lossless medium because no soundwaves of the master tracks are “lost” in compression. Every part of the soundwave, including the smallest ones, is captured in the grooves. Compression occurs when analog signals are converted to digital ones. This results in the loss of detail or a compromise.
Vinyl sounds more complex and richer because the sound is transmitted in its entirety. You owe it to your fans to give them the best possible sound so they can get the closest to the studio recording of your song.
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Emotional investment
Vinyl is art. Vinyl is an emotional purchase that speaks to a listener’s subjective nature.
Fans who buy your album on vinyl feel more connected to it because they are actively supporting it and the artist who created it. Many people are proud to collect vinyl. The general attitude is, “So you call yourself a fan, but do you have the discography of vinyl?”
A good vinyl collection is a testament to the listener’s status as a true audiophile. By investing in a timeless format, they are helping to build your legacy as an artist.
Artists’ credibility
will consider you a serious artist, just as a vinyl fan will. Today, anyone can release digital music with no investment. The cover can be designed on canva.com. Vinyl encourages you to think carefully about your album cover and to create something memorable.
You have to think about the order of the songs and whether they are telling the story that you want. You shouldn’t use vinyl if you are creating an album and the only goal is to have one song on a playlist.
Encouraged through-play
The popularity of music streaming platforms has been attributed to their ability to encourage the consumption of playlists. Listeners tend to isolate songs rather than consider them as interwoven parts of a whole. They see them as short stories, not chapters of a novel. They have never been so quick to hit the skip button.
Vinyl is a motivator that will keep you going from beginning to end. Skipping songs is not just a nuisance but taboo. This encourages your listeners to take in the entire album and play it from side A to side B, as you intended.
The Listener’s Ritual
Vinyl transforms the act of listening to music into a ritual. The hunt for the perfect gem, the beautiful cover, the pop and crack when you place the needle, the active listening.
Listening to records is a ritual that includes these elements. Rituals are a way for people to express their feelings and honor the things they value through physical, cognitive, and emotional investment. As an artist, you want your audience to have this listening experience. You want to make your audience feel that your album is sacred.
Serious about it
If you’re a musician who is serious about the success of your album and your listener’s experience, then you should make sure that your waves are pressed into grooves.
