Records

Vinyl records are a means of storing music that is generally considered obsolete by mainstream society, however there still exist a niche market for people who prefer to listen to vinyl records, they are still extremely popular with audiophiles and high end hi-fi enthusiasts who insist that vinyl records when played though a high quality system will produce a better reproduction of sound than a CD recording would. As many record labels abandoned the vinyl format during the early nineties a great deal of popular albums ceased to be issued on vinyl, for this reason many vinyl records, particularly first pressings and other rarities have become serious collectors items and there is a huge market for collectors and traders.

Many collectors will profess to enthuse over vinyl due to the nostalgia value and the larger space of artwork that record sleeves around, many of which have elaborate packaging with gatefold sleeves. Some companies will still issue vinyl records and it is not uncommon to see new albums from certain bands and artists being released on vinyl, it’s especially popular for new pressings of records to be issued in colours other than the standard glossy black of most records. It is not unusual to see records with multi coloured surfaces, or picture discs with an image underplayed beneath a layer of clear vinyl, these are considered more collectable as they are often only ever issued in limited numbers.