Would vinyl even be invented today?

As a young lad growing up part of my life in Southern California in the mid 1960s many had a transistor radio and a portable suit case style record player in their bedrooms, stacks of 45s and Lps galore,.it was the same for the older generation of kids growing up in the 1950s, portable battery operated vacuum tube radios and early versions of the compact record player for 78 rpm,.
But these technologies can be traced further back,...

Going to the beach on the weekends was a memorable sight , bleach blondes in skimpy bikinis , the surf and the top ten blaring over radios.
music was everywhere and the World bought vinyl, 100s of billions of vinyl records...."...
There are many items we use today or variations of ,some of which changed very little like the slot head screw,,centuries old ,one use and maybe first delveloped to dress in armour .

Didn't Al Gore invent the LP?

Didn't Al Gore invent the LP?

No. He is clearly a digital guy.

If I had to guess, I'd say ol Al rocks out to mp3s pushed through his bose wave ;-)

Well, let's look at the market for sound reproduction and make an educated, clean-sheet-of-paper guess. Hi-res digital, available as either download, stream, or SACD/DVD audio is out there already. It offers the essentially "perfect sound forever" promised, but not delivered, by CD. Hardware is expensive, but quite good examples may be had for non-stratospheric prices. IMHO, the combination of high quality sonics plus convenience plus affordability would doom the LP record to instant obsolescence should it come to market brand new today. Sad but in all probability true. Think back: remember the El cassette? How about digital audiotape? Those didn't work out so good, as I recall. LPs wouldn't either if brought to market now for the first time.