Is the Vinyl Revival well and growing?

YES!

I got more heavily back in to vinyl around 1 year ago, and especially about 9 months ago when I bought a really nice high end turntable for the first time.  

I had been using a micro seiki turntable that I'd had for years, bequeathed to me by my father-in-law, and I'd play some of my old albums now and again and enjoy my visit to vinyl-land for what it was.

But then I started becoming aware of ever more new vinyl releases.  These weren't just re-masters of old albums, but just new albums.  And they kept coming...more and more BRAND NEW albums on vinyl.  I was especially smitten by many of the soundtrack releases, many of new movies, or first time releases of older soundtracks (or re-mastered).   I couldn't help but purchase some of those and receiving them was a complete thrill.  It wasn't just the fact I was actually receiving shiny, pristine new vinyl....whereas before all I'd ever played was my old dusty, well-played records with all their hiss and scratches.  But the packaging and aesthetics were just fantastic.  They really did feel like special objects in of themselves to just hold, open, look at.

But listening to pristine new vinyl also helped hook me.   And when I saw that the floodgates were opened and I could spend my days as much listening to new music on vinyl as old, it pushed me towards updating my vinyl system - new turntable, phono stage.  And now vinyl sounded incredible!  I was never one to pooh-pooh digital, and I still don't.  But I surprised even myself by the fact that I was buying so many records that just to keep up it became my main source of listening.  (And I won't even go in to the rabbit hole I've gone down in terms of Library music - my new obsession - and getting in to buying on discogs...)

This has also made me take notice of all the record shops popping up in my city and there are so many now.   Within a mile or two of my own house there are 4 record stores.   And all seem to be thriving.  There are far more throughout the city now.  A number of my son's (16) friends who see my turntable mention they, or their family, have a turntable and LPs as well.   

Beyond personal anecdote, for whatever reason I've also developed the habit of just searching the news on the vinyl revival over the past 10 months or so.  And it certainly seems to be continuing upward.  Literally every single day there are new stories about the vinyl revival, about vinyl records, vinyl record production, and new record stores opening up.
Almost every story is positive on growth for vinyl.

This was one recently form Forbes:

"Vinyl Is Bigger Than We Thought. Much Bigger."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/billrosenblatt/2018/09/18/vinyl-is-bigger-than-we-thought-much-bigger/#...

For me, personally, I frankly doubt I'd have anything like the vinyl fever...and fun and collection I've gathered...if it weren't for the vinyl revival.   Just playing my old records could feel a bit too much of a dated activity before, like going back to the graveyard of an old format.  But vinyl has been revitalized for me as something exciting and "new," and with so much music offered on vinyl it's now my preferred format.
When a new vinyl LP arrives at my door I'm giddy.  When a (very rare now) CD shows up, I just get no kick at all.  It's just something to rip to my hard drive and put away.   It just doesn't offer all the things that make vinyl an "experience" for me.

Anyway, that's my take.

I would like vinyl to continue at a sufficient level of popularity to maintain production, but don't really care if it continues to increase in popularity. There are a ton of used albums available - enough to supply needs for any foreseeable future.

I once lucked out and bought around 100 classical albums from an elderly lady whose grandson had worked at a classical college radio station, that had unloaded their vinyl and gone to digital. She never played them and while some had been played a few times for on air play, many were sealed promotional copies (which I promptly unsealed and listened to).

But that's classical - good luck trying to find an Iron Butterfly album that doesn't sound like it spent a year as the bottom of a hamster cage.

All my old albums spent years stacked on record changers. Probably nothing worse for condition or playback. I remember having so many stacked on there that when the last album fell it would slip on top of the other ones and effectively slow the rpms. 

Looking for great vinyl at cheap prices? Look for them in the wild, i.e. thrift stores. I found about 3 dozen in the last week. $1 to 1.50. Amazing stuff. Doesn't happen all the time but they show up all together in one place at the same time as a donation. Takes patience. Also you'll find stuff so rare you never see it anywhere else. Lots of mono stuff as well.

terry1229

Hm...What advertising will do to the young and impressionable! All this vinyl rage is the latest fad and advertising scam.

That is merely naive cynicism masquerading as insight.  And it already puts you as out of touch.  Cynics were yelling "fad, it won't last" 10 years ago.  And it has only grown for 12 years straight, often by double digits, with still more pressing plants opening up, and planned to open.
The time is long past to be able to call it a mere "fad."  

I have used digital as my main delivery system since CDs came along, and continue to use a digital server, so I'm quite familiar with digital sound quality.  I also have a great turntable and a lot of old and new vinyl, and vinyl can offer not only superb sound but also a different ownership and interaction experience that many find valuable.   
When I receive a vinyl album, beautifully designed in terms of feel and artwork, and which produces sound quality that I absolutely love, that is hardly being "scammed."  It's actually getting something I value for my money.


To think that the only options are your view on sound reproduction...or that someone is falling for a "scam" is to say the least, blinkered and unreflective thinking.   

But I know many people like to think this way as it is ego-stroking; it casts themselves as "seeing behind the veil" and others as mere sheep being fleeced.