Is the Vinyl Revival well and growing?

Most of my friends sold their vinyl when compact discs became fashionable. 

I wouldn’t, or perhaps couldn’t. Not sure even now. 

Going strong at 8,000+. 

Hm...What advertising will do to the young and impressionable! All this vinyl rage is the latest fad and advertising scam. After growing up with earbuds and mp3 files, anything would have to be an improvement. Can you remember about 1980 when CD's were first introduced? We were all astatic about the new medium that promised nothing but perfect sound. No more click, pops, limited dynamic range, stylus jumping out of the groove on loud passages.OH JOY! OH RAPTURE! It was a dream come true for us audiophiles.

There were only three major events in the history of recorded music. The original acoustic horn method on cylinders 1880's, later followed by electrical recorded records 1925 and the next audio improvement digital recording approximately 1978. 

Arguably, many early digital CD releases leaved something to be desired but as the technology grew, many magnificent sonic recordings became available. Those made by Telarc continued to sound a step ahead of the major labels. Had the other followed in the same steps and used the Telarc digital recording setup, there would be no need for SCAD, DSD, DVD Audio and Blu-ray audio disc. None of those techniques every got up off the ground because most audiophiles couldn't notice much if any improvement over the original compact disc. And here again we have the usual advertising BS telling us these new methods and extra bits are going to give us the ultimate audio heaven listening experience. So, what did you here, that's what I heard!

Us older folk know better and the young and uninitiated will have to live and learn. Vinyl will continue to click, pop, jump, etc. Vinyl sales have dropped this year and most likely will contiue do so in favor of a more technically superior medium.

A lot of good thoughts posted. I think vinyl will never become main stream again. The vinyl revival will be short lived.Guys like me, picked the used record  stores, garage sales, record fairs, private collections,years ago. I am surprised that used sale prices have skyrocketed as per reports on this thread. Reissues are: some good, most just OK.

Young people are still the same. Few will be serious, Most will lose interest and fall away. Taking care of records takes added time and costs. Not acceptable in the world of today. Rare that they have the room for a stereo system while they share an apartment with 1-3 others.

 Vinyl is almost antique now. The thirty somethings that will stay serious need to wait for guys like me to pass and hope They will get a chance at my collection and that my wife will sell at reasonable prices. Good Luck with that !  I am starting to look at ebay, discogs and probably visit some record stores and start putting price labels on the plastic outer protection sleeves.

I only buy 3-6 records a year now. 3000 plus records in MINT condition.If you seek original pressings. Specialty collections. Rare and great audiophile pressings. My wife will be the one that they will want to find.

My 93 year old neighbor just donated his 9,000 to 10,000 Jazz collection to the local Jazz Museum. I knew of the collection and was waiting for the Estate Sale weekend. Two days before the sale, I saw 2 guys loading box after box of records into a truck. My heart sank.

Vinyl is still alive but Analog Recording is gone. Soon our generation will pass too. It is,What it is. Enjoy what you have.

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.