Without giving too much personal information away about my age and those of my colleagues here at Skout PR, it’s safe to say that collectively we’re in our 100s. Yes, all old enough to remember life before really smart technology like iPods and Play Stations were even invented and our Sunday evenings were dedicated to taping that week’s Top 40.
“Taping the charts, what does that mean?” my 11 year old once asked me, making me feel :
a) Really old
b) Amazed that today’s youngsters will never have to ‘tape’ the charts on a tape player because they can download thousands and thousands of songs on to a tiny device.
So, I was surprised to read today that figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) show that vinyl is making a comeback with almost 550,000 LPs being sold so far this year.
Although significant, it’s still a small amount compared to downloads and CD sales and accounting for 0.7% of all albums sold.
Record Store Day in April, the annual celebration of independent record shops has been credited with driving this surge in sales and it’s good to hear that many artists still insist on putting their music out on vinyl, even though it can be expensive.
So what retro item do you think will be next for making a comeback? Not sure the tape and tape player will ever have its day again, but there are sure to other items that were just too cool to be over taken by fancy technology forever. Let us know what you’d like to see make a comeback.
