Why we love vinyl [Thanks to Coldplay]

Coldplay's next release, a vinyl-only box set collection of singles, proves that this format will persist while CDs depart for that great big stereo in the sky.

Firmly rooted in a classic songwriting tradition, today even multi-platinum-selling bands such as Coldplay can seem stuck in time. But last week the big wigs at EMI appeared to consign them to the pre-Jurassic era when they announced that Chris Martin and co's next release would be a vinyl-only box set collection of 15 singles. "Vinyl?" I hear you ask. "Isn't that extinct?"

Unlike past-it music hacks, out-of-touch doomsayers and Steve Jobs would have you believe, the sticky black stuff still not only stalks the earth, but looks set to outlive almost all of its touchy feely contemporaries. Later-day critters, like the cassette and mini-disc, have already departed for that great big stereo in the sky, and the CD looks set to follow suit.

Yet vinyl, with its distinct tangibility and nostalgic charm, persists. Recent BPI figures show that sales of the seven-inch single keep on rising, despite the advent of digital downloads. In fact, EMI pressing 15,000 copies of Coldplay's The Singles 1999-2006 collection, perhaps the grandest endorsement of vinyl's enduring appeal yet, is certainly not the first.

Last year, vinyl box set collections of both contemporary (The Killers) and classic (The Jam) rock bands appeared on the shelves, as did those compiled from the vaults of the Motown and Trojan labels. Strange as it may sound, if you're not prone to wearing spandex tights and indulging in Spinal Tap-like air guitar playing of a weekend, the demand for Iron Maiden picture discs is currently such that the only UK pressing plant now capable of making them is full to capacity.

Later this year, we'll see a vinyl box set release of Queen singles, which should set new precedents still. If you're starting to think that consigning your dusty old record player to the scrap heap was, well, a bit hasty, you'd be right.

Of course, in terms of user-friendliness records can't compete with digital music files. They are bulky, impractical and expensive. Yet, as Observer music critic Sean O'Hagan, noted recently "people need things" and that music free of its context is strangely "ghostly, dismembered and intangible". As we spend ever more time absorbed in our computers, vinyl, especially seven-inch vinyl, doesn't just act as a beautiful object in its own right but also as a signifier that recorded music actually exists outside the database on your iPod, and in your head.

Fans who want to emotionally engage with their music, to collect rather than simply consume it, understand this all too well. As the music industry is starting to cotton on, they are at the forefront of a new, growing market to which releases like the Coldplay box set are a must-have.

Source: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk