Listen to vinyl...or die.

Before I start expounding upon the many reasons why listening to vinyl is best way to enjoy music, I want to clear up a common misconception many of you (out there in the blog-o-sphere) might have about the types of people who listen to records, vinyl, LPs, EPs, 7"s, 12"s – whatever you want to call them. It's true, listening to records might seem like a fad, and the fact that Urban Outfitters now sells vinyl doesn't really help the case for that at all, but I'm here to tell you that there are legitimate  reasons for listening to records over mp3s, CDs, cassettes, and virtually any other form of music-listening you can think of with the exception of a live performance.

Hipster kitty gets me every time.

First and foremost, the act of listening to records is, well, an active experience. Listening to mp3s is a far more passive experience. It's easy to scroll through an iPod, iTouch, iPad, iTunes, iWhatever, and randomly click on a band or an album. There isn't much thought put into what we're listening to, which weakens the connection between the listener and the music itself. It's been made too easy for us. Listening to records requires a much stronger conscious presence – you're paying attention to the music because you're actively, and physically, moving from one album to the next. There's no easy way to skip a track when listening to vinyl. Go ahead, pick up the needle and try not to scratch the album. I dare you.

If nothing else, they're conversation starters. The album (in its most natural form) is right in front of you, which forces you to actively take in all of the aesthetics – the absurd cover art, the fresh smell of dust, the cat hair bundle that came with your purchase free of charge. Listening to vinyl is also a much more social experience. The records are tangible, not some floating amoeba in interweb-space. You can bring over a stack of vinyl to your friends house and just sit around, talking about life, talking about love, talking about music. Records encourage all of that mumbo jumbo I just mentioned....that drinking lots of wine but that's another story. Also, sharing records easily is pretty neat! How often do you hear someone refer to their iTunes as their “music collection?” You don't. And that, my friends, is a huge problem for the music industry and for all the music-buffs out there who give a damn.

That's a real album cover right there.

People have lost their loyalty to bands because their music too accessible online. I'd much rather take a Saturday out of my life to go vinyl-hunting in some dungeon of a record store and emerge victorious with a pile of hidden gems. Which brings me to another idea, a revolutionary one at that, and that is that listening to vinyl also encourages a healthy hobby. People spend money on booze and drugs and booze and drugs and...books for school or something like that, so why not drop some cash for the music you hold near and dear to your heart? Your record collection is like a window into your soul, so fill it up with all your most prized albums.

If you STILL aren't convinced that listening to vinyl is the best option for you (by this point I'm sure you have, otherwise you wouldn't have read this far), here are some other factors to consider from a more moral standpoint. Buying vinyl supports the local economy – if you're buying from a record store in town, you're doing your part to keep a small business on the map, which is always a good thing. I know this one seems pretty wild, but believe it or not, it's nice when people get paid for the work they've done. As a general rule in our society, goods or services are typically exchanged for some form of payment, and I don't see why it should be any different in this case. Last and most certainly not least, a ton of record companies who are pressing vinyl are including free MP3 downloads of the album with the purchase of the vinyl. So for those of you who still aren't convinced that vinyl is the way to go, it's becoming more and more popular to include the free-digital download within the album. This makes everyone happy – the bands who made the music, the companies who distribute it, and you, the consumer, who gets to have the option to listen to the album on either format.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start hoarding vinyl like it's nobody's business.

Be like this lady, except trade cats for vinyl.