That vinyl has experienced a resurgence is a much exhausted topic, with LPs selling at large lifestyle stores and cutesy budget turntables available from any number of the same. But most labels who release albums on vinyl also release them electronically, through some combination of free-download-with-purchase promos, SoundCloud accounts, iTunes sales, etc. In these instances, vinyl is the preferred collector’s item, the substance available when a person actually wants to own an object along with their music—but digital is nearly always an option.
In small communities, however, vinyl purism is gaining strength, with releases available exclusively on wax. In the electronic dance community, for example, vinyl-only releases have become a way for its members to distinguish themselves as apart from the mass media EDM scene and all of the big-money marketing and production that sub-genre entails. On the other hand, the same article asks the old question: if your purism will always become a new mass trend, then what’s the point? We like the answer given by Stefan Mitterer of Sex Tags Mania: “I’m quite satisfied with where I am. Growth isn’t the only way of developing.”
