I have collected vinyl records about as long as I have collected stamps. That is, since about 1973, when I was six years old. Though back then, I didn’t really think of records as something you collected, I just wanted them so I could listen to music. I got my first own vinyl record, “With the Beatles” (Beatles’ second UK album released in 1963), from my aunt Edith for Christmas in 1973. It seemed ancient at the time, being a 10 year old recording, but I loved the Beatles, and this was one record that neither of my siblings owned so I had put it on my Christmas list so that I could hear “All My Loving”. The same year my uncle Thorvald sent me my first First Day Cover, the modest beginning of my stamp collection. Aside from my guitar collection, which for monetary reasons started much later, these two collecting areas, which remains with me to this day, got their start in that same magical year of 1973.
The two collections have taken several detours over the years with up and downs, pauses, changes in technology, and a few surprises along the way. For stamp collecting it got put on the backburner after I moved to the US to go to college in 1988 and, aside from maintaining a subscription to Norwegian First Day Covers, didn’t get re-ignited until COVID forced us to slow down in 2020.
For vinyl records, I got my first CD player in 1986, and purchased my last vinyl records (or so I thought) in the early 1990s when they became a bargain as people dumped their vinyl in favor of CDs. At one point, while visiting my parents in Norway, my dad came in after taking out the trash announcing “A neighbor just dumped a lot of vinyl records in the trash can”. Assuming it was likely records deserving to end their lives in the trash can, I didn’t respond. He kept insisting I should take a look and eventually decided to bring in a sample of the findings. In his hands were mostly mint condition albums by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa, and many of the other artists I love. I may have set a new sprint record that day. That trash can contained literally 100 or more albums that today would sell for $20-30.00 used. Similar stories have been shared about stamp collections being found in landfills. My point being, nobody wanted vinyl records in the 1990s, and nobody could have predicted that some day they would return.
I can’t think of many other technologies that died and came back. Film photography to some extent. Fax machines and VCRs, fortunately not. So why did vinyl records make such a comeback, and why am I writing about this in a blog about philately? I will try to answer both of these questions here.
Around 2005 I decided to stop collecting physical media. Why fill up my house with more CDs, books, etc. when I could just purchase digital equivalents online? For a few years I only bought records in downloadable, digital format. For my birthday in 2008 a friend gave me a vinyl record (Brian Wilson’s then new album “That Lucky Old Sun”).
Sitting down at my stereo with a glass of wine, listening to this album it occurred to me how much I missed this experience. With digital files, music often just became background noise, something I had on in the background while doing something else. Sitting down with a vinyl record, opening the gatefold cover, and actually listening, was an entirely different experience.
Around the same time, a group of people, who apparently had the same desire for physical media as myself, came up with the idea for Record Store Day. Originally once a year, strategically placed near tax day in April (a good way to spend your refund, if there was one), artists started releasing unique, very limited edition vinyl releases, only released to independently owned record stores. The concept worked, and now, over 15 years later, Record Store Day (RSD) is bigger than ever. I just “observed” this year’s RSD (April 20) at Twist & Shout in Denver, my usual go-to record store. By 6 AM when my son and I showed up, the line was already half-way around the block. By 8 AM, when the store opened, it was a blockbuster (i.e. the line ran all the way around all four sides of the city block).
Since that birthday in 2008 my vinyl collection has continued to grow steadily, even buying some CDs occasionally. My only limiting factors these days are space, and the fact that there is little more to release from the artists that I do collect (mostly those I discovered before the age of 21). While I do buy a few new artists, they don’t have the same “staying power” as those artists I discovered in my youth. But, where my record buying days may have slowed down, my children have taken over. All my three kids own a turntable and purchase vinyl records to a lesser or greater extent.
I asked my 18-year old daughter Laura why she buys vinyl records when she can stream anything she wants from Spotify? She told me she likes the idea of physical objects. The value of having a “full package”. That she can experience the artwork and the lyrics printed inside. When she puts on a record, she listens to the who album rather than just an individual song, getting the full experience that the artist intended. She also told me she thinks vinyl sounds better that digital. Imagine that! Anyone old enough to remember the introduction of CDs in the mid-1980s? One of the key selling points of CDs was crystal clear sound, and no pops or crackles as you would find on vinyl. The truth is, CDs were developed with the very limited digital technology we had in the 1980s. 44,100 samples per second was cutting edge in the 1980s. Consider your average 5 minute video clip on your iPhone today uses more storage capacity than what can be fit on a single CD, you get the point. Vinyl in contrast is analog so it gives you completely uncompressed audio. Further, modern vinyl records are pressed with generally higher quality vinyl than in the past (and priced accordingly) so they have very little surface noise. A friend who hadn’t listened to vinyl since the 1980s recently asked when I played him a record: ‘What happened to all the pops and crackles I remembered from playing vinyl as a kid?” Without going to deep on this (it is a topic I am passionate about and, yes, I can go very deep if needed), vinyl records has seen an unexpected massive resurgence in the past 15 years and it doesn’t seem to end. While it represents a blip in overall music revenue, one fact is firmly established by now: The comeback has lasted too long for it to be a fad. It isn’t just old people like me who buys vinyl. I saw an equal number of people under 30 in line for RSD this year.
So, there you have my answer to the first question as to why vinyl came back. What about the second question. How does this relate to philately?
As someone who collects both records and stamps there are a lot of similarity between record collectors and stamp collectors. While I don’t know many stamp collectors who also collects records and vice versa, there are similarities. The discussion of that is a whole other study beyond the scope of this article.
The point I want to make is that people who started buying vinyl records again did so because they missed the physical aspects of having an actual record. I predict that at one point we may see the same reaction to mail. In a world where we are increasingly bombarded with email from multiple accounts, messages from numerous platforms, and social media we start to go into information overload, and then we just start tuning it out. It is like the old Bruce Springsteen song “57 Channels and Nothing On”. The more information we get, the more we tune it out. My business has been increasing our use of physical mail to our prospective clients because we find that our messages are not getting through with the many electronic channels we have access to. With physical mailings we are getting feedback that they received the material we sent. We also find that they are more likely to open it and to share it with others.
So will this behavior translate to individuals reverting to sending letters to each other? More importantly, will the next generation start sending letters? While we have trained our own children to send thank you cards by mail, I suspect that there are many growing up today who have never attached a postage stamp to an envelope and sent a physical letter. If you have never done something then why would you miss it or be motivated to start doing it? Many younger individuals had never played a vinyl record before either but when they saw their friends do it, or saw a video of someone doing it on Tik Tok, they too became intrigued. Behavior is often driven by copying what others do. Sending a letter is often influenced by responding to getting a letter. My son received a letter from his Big Sister (as in Big Brother Big Sister) after she moved away. This led to pen-pal relationship that lasts to this day.
So what if we create “International Send a Letter Day”? One day a year where we all send a letter to someone (and hopefully get a few in return). Imagine the possibilities: Postal services can issues limited-release stamps just for this day (instantly creating a collectors market). It could help stimulate both a desire for sending letters (not just on this day) and it may help recruit new future philatelists. What would such an endeavor cost? Likely there would be the need to do some initial marketing but over time this event could grow through word of mouth just like Record Store Day did.
Just a thought I had, but it might just work. In a world where more and more things go digital (and I am guilty helping this cause, having spent most of my career in software) many of us are seeking back to a simpler time with real physical objects and real physical communication. It might just happen some day.