Picture this. The year is 1974. Your favorite artist just released a new album. You aren’t able to get your hands on the vinyl, but one of your friends can. You and several other friends gather at his house, huddle around the record player, and watch the needle descend onto the vinyl and fall into place. Today, more vinyl records are being sold since vinyl was the primary way to consume music, and people are trying to capture or recapture that same experience of listening to a song for the first time, and having it be a special unique experience. Vinyl has been coming back, and East is here to see it.

Sophomore Jack Eby has been collecting vinyl for some time now, and thinks the introduction of vinyl changed the scope of music. Not only that, he said it completely revolutionized music.

“Music in the form of records allowed the music to be played at any time, as opposed to live or on the radio. Music-listening was no longer restricted to a given time frame, and it offered a cheap way to listen to favorite songs at any time,”Eby said.

Eby also thinks there are many ways to get into vinyl, and shares his experience.

“What got me interested in vinyl is the idea that it preserves the past, in a way. Vinyl is a physical medium of music that can’t easily be taken away, and that aspect of collecting has always appealed to me,” Eby said.

Record Benders is a local record shop in old town Bellevue, co-owned by Randy Daniels, and his wife Annette. Daniels said he has noticed an increase in customers since they opened in the 90s. 

“I’d say there has been a 20 percent increase in people, business has been good,” Daniels said.

Daniels said he has also noticed an increase in the number of youth shopping with their parents, grandparents and other relatives.

“Many youth come in with their parents and grandparents, and browse, sometimes the adults get lost in old records; it’s nice to see multiple generations sharing a passion,” Daniels said.

Sophomore Jackson Cristobal said the first time vinyl experience is special, and was first introduced to it from the world of film. 

“I got interested in vinyl from a movie a while back that exclusively sold the songs used in the movie on vinyl, then I started getting albums from artists as well,” Cristobal said.

Cristobal also said the price to quality ratio is well worth it, and thinks the experience of using vinyl as opposed to a music streaming platform is more special.

“Compared to digital or more modern music you can find, you can tell that even though they are more expensive, vinyls have a more distinct and unique sound worth the price because of how they are made and what they are made of,” Cristobal said.