In a world full of 2025musicstreaming services like Apple, YouTube, Amazon Music, Spotify, and Tidal, and satellite radio options like SiriusXM, it becomes harder and harder to remember the prior superiority of the physical formats of albums. From today’s Top 10 hits to thebest-selling rock album of all time, the reality is that physical media today pales in comparison to thehold that digital downloading and streaming have on the music marketand the so-called “meaning” that streams have on artist popularity.
With how popular digital is, why have vinyl records seen a resurgence in recent years? Why have other formats like cassettes and CDs maintained a niche popularity that just won’t quite go away in a more technologically based world? I often wonder what keeps us holding on to these musical hallmarks buried so deeply from within our pasts.
1Getting To Own The Physical Media We Purchase
Art That Benefits The Listener And Its Creator
As we reach increasingly further into the digital era,new concerns have arisen that the digital art we purchase is no longer guaranteed to belong to us. Whether it’s albums or video games, there should always be a contract of ownership unless there’s an outright option to rent (or stream through a subscription such as Spotify). But I’ve often noticed that the buy button is slowly becoming less and less of a given for the consumer.
Whether it’s albums or video games, there should always be a contract of ownership unless there’s an outright option to rent.
Whereas buying a vinyl, CD, or even a cassette is a promise note to the purchaser that, as long as you have something to play your media on,it’s guaranteed to be yoursuntil breakage, loss, theft, or resale. Not to mention, buying physical media guarantees significantly more profit to the artist’s bottom line compared to the pennies on the dollar creators make from the very small percentage of streaming given out by platforms such as Spotify.
2The Nature Of Superior Sound Quality
It’s About More Than MP3s
While there’s been plenty ofdebate over the years about whether physical media like vinyl possess a better quality of soundcompared to the digital realm, there is some subjective basis to support that argument. Especially when it comes to the compression rates found in many contemporary file formats such as MP3, which lessen the overall fidelity of songs made this way and often make them unnaturally loud in compensation.
Vinyl warms up the arrangementsyou hear. Music like the 2022 remix of The Beatles albumRevolversounds spread out, giving the distinct instruments an ideal level of sharpness. Take that vinyl quality and pair it with some high-quality headphones or speakers, and it often feels like the closest a listener can come to feeling like they were almost in the room while the musicians were making the album. Like a fly on the wall, I say.
3The Art Of The Artwork
Tapestries To Hold In Your Hand
Back in the day, analbum’s cover artwork was as famousas the music iteself. It’s a travesty in the world of music how album covers have shrunk from the size of vinyl, cassette, and CD to fully digital, pixelated thumbnails. Not only did it represent the loss of appreciating great,iconic album cover artup close and personal in a large size, but it was also areduction of the other elements of an LP that make it so fun.
Album covers have shrunk from the size of vinyl, cassette, and CD to fully digital, pixelated thumbnails.
No longer could you hold and examine possible cover art on the front orbackof a record, plus a potential vinyl gatefold or a sheet/booklet with lyrics and liner notes on a vinyl or CD disappeared as well. The essential album experience—admiring it in your hands, opening it for the first time and discovering hidden treasures within—has became as thin as a cardboard cutout, and in my mind it made thedigital dive-in feel that much more hollow.
4The Album-Buying Experience
A Lifeblood Flows Through The Record Shop
Buying albums through an online outlet such as the former shell of iTunes (now called Music) or listening to streams through Spotify pales in comparison to the two greatest words a music listener can hear: record store. While many of theSam Goodys, FYEs, or Tower Records of the world have goneon to that mega-sales store in the sky, the independents still fight on. And many aspects of them are just as authentic asmovies likeHigh Fidelityillustrate.
You can have music talk so spirited it should be held around a water cooler. There’s thetimeless ritual of flipping through stacks and stacks of albums(organized and otherwise) in the hunt for a priceless masterpiece or just the latest album that’s been on your mind. There are sometimes CDs and cassettes as well as vinyl to look through. And there are even yearly exclusive events like Record Store Day to make you get out and experience music, not just in your own headphones or Amazon checkout queue.
5Engaging In The Full Album Journey
Living In The Entire Experience
Despite living in a contemporary world of music that so often dwells on the success of singles and short attention spans,physical media keeps you in the experience of entire albums as a whole adventure. CDs keep playing until they stop or are stopped, while cassettes and vinyl have sides that end and have to be flipped to continue. There’s simply more engagement with physical media than the digital world can offer. It might be slightly less convenient, but in my mind it means there’s a higher level of investment required in the listening experience.
There’s simply more engagement with physical media than the digital world can offer.
Because unless you’re focused on maintaining music as a simple background instrumental or light accenting in the room, there should begenuine engagement or connection with it to establish those true musical bonds. Physical media is a greater chance to remain present in the musical moment, and I think that’s the landing ground for connection to grow into something greater.
