I like the ritual of playing a vinyl, they require intention.

Second hand CDs are very cheap and much easier to rip.

I don’t collect either but when I buy something I buy vinyl, they feel more like a physical object.

Vinyl, probably. I already have 20 or so. I have a massive retro game collection, so either would be good. I like how vinyl is analog, of course.

I was in the record business from the 70s through the early 2000s, and oversaw the transition from LPs to CDs. I had a huge LP collection (50% classical), which I transitioned to a huge CD collection, and got rid of most of the LPs. I still have the entire collection.

CDs were the better format by a long ways, but I totally understand why people love vinyl. For one thing, the large format cover. I remember working for a classical record label, and we were looking at the final cover proof of the last LP we were releasing before going all CD, a particularly beautiful photo of the Alps, and my boss saying “Aren’t you going to miss the big cover art?” And all of us nodded solemnly. It really felt like a funeral, like I was saying goodbye.

I also remember wondering how people were going to clean their weed, and roll proper joints without an LP with a gatefold cover.

Properly keeping a vinyl collection is a chore. First of all, if you are doing it right, ALL of your LPs are in a poly sleeve for protection, so the process for playing an LP is this:

• Remove the album from the shelf, where it is properly stored upright and tight.

• Remove the LP from the poly sleeve

• Remove the inner sleeve/ dust cover from the cover.

• Remove the LP from the inner sleeve/ dust cover, carefully using fingertips on the edges and label only.

• Hold the LP, and look at it from the edge, to see if there are any obvious warps or kinks. Of course there aren’t, you store it properly, but you look anyway.

• You blow off any obvious hairs or dust.

• Set it carefully on the turntable, trying to put the spindle through hole on the first try, without rubbing it around, making nearly invisible, but bothersome, marks around the hole, that will irk you every time you see them.

• Carefully clean the surface with a Discwasher or some other cleaning device.

• Use a stylus brush on the needle to remove any schmutz.

• Carefully place the needle on the surface, and relax for the next 20 minutes as you listen to your music. Or dance. Or my personal favorite: Air Guitar (I play for real, I’m allowed).

• Flip the record, repeat the entire cleaning process, and drop the needle.

• Reverse the process, put the LP back into the inner sleeve, put that in the cover, put the album back in the poly sleeve, and slip it back into its proper place on the shelf.

That’s a lot more complicated than simply dropping a CD into a drawer and pushing a button.

The psychological result of all those steps, EVERY time you want to play music, is that it starts to feel like a ritual, and takes on a feeling of importance. The music you listen to, the LPs that that you fuss over, that you preserve, and collect, take on a personal and cultural significance, that you feel a need to protect.

As new formats came along, CDs, then Digital Downloads, the ritual was removed, and music stopped feeling important. In the 60s and 70s, music was a significant factor in ending the Vietnam War, but it is hard to imagine today’s music industry mobilizing against the government. Most people don’t take their music as seriously as they did back then.

Yet some have rediscovered the satisfaction in having such a strong, PHYSICAL relationship with their music collection, and are collecting LPs again.

I get it. Music has ALWAYS been important to me, so I don’t need the ritual to remind me anymore anymore, or maybe doing the ritual 100,000 when I was young wove it into my DNA. Either way, CDs have the durability, combined with the punchier sound quality, ease of use, and longer duration, and I was hooked the first time I saw one. I’ll take the advantages of the CD over The Ritual any day.

I don’t really see a point to cds when you can just buy the music digitally, and store it on a USB key or similar.

I personally buy vinyls, but they are very expensive compared to cds. I think that they’re more of an experience compared to cds.

Same as I do now.

CDs.

You can rip CDs to digital easily. You can get them cheap at resale shops and garage sales.

I buy and listen to vinyls, but also I moatly only buy them for my top 5 artists, partly for display. I do buy some if Infind them cheap or they are special, but I don’t really collect vinyls. They are impractical.

If I was doing it as a way to acquire music to listen to, CDs, it’s easier and more convenient to rip them to a computer, they take up less storage space, and are more tolerant of a bit of neglect.

If I’m just looking to collect something for the sake of collecting something, probably vinyl.

Same as I do now, vinyl. If you’re listening to CDs, which are digital, you may as well buy your music digitally from Bandcamp or wherever and you have no need for physical media.

CDs also suffer from bit rot so they won’t last forever, best way to keep them forever is to rip them, but at that point, again, just buy the music digitally.

Vinyl doesn’t give you the best sound quality, it can be annoying to have to flip the record over or change records, but there’s something about it being tangible, it’s a real thing, you can see the grooves, you don’t even need power to play a record. And with care, they’ll last a lot longer than a CD.

Vinyl isn’t a perfect medium, but that’s kinda what makes it so fun and special

Vinyl. If shit hits the fan and there are no music players left I think I might possibly get vinyl to play manually/mechanically somehow.

CDs

Disk rot is a real issue, but I can make ISOs from them and back them up with my current hardware. Records are all fun and a better decor item, but if data preservation is the goal, I need to be able to make my own copies.

Vinyl is trash coming back to sell to collectors.

If you want to put covers up in a room or something go for it. But for listening to music they are the dumbest shit imaginable.

My wife is totally into vinyl but I keep telling her, the best it will ever sound is the first time you play it and it degrades just a little bit every time the needle hits it.

CDs are consistent. The same data every play, and it’s easier to rip them to digital.

Is there a vinyl equivalent of disc rot?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_rot

If I weren’t allowed to stream or pirate, then CDs.

If I am, then Vinyl.

CDs, hands down. Never liked vinyls for a myriad of reasons.