story by Emma Willibey, photos by Jessie Culver

During the mid-2000s, technology giants packed sound spectrums into MP3 files. Companies digitalized iconic pieces like artist Andy Warhol’s banana cover for alternative veterans the Velvet Underground’s debut. While software adapted albums to hurried lifestyles, one group perceived music as not an event’s soundtrack, but an event itself.

“[Listening to vinyl] is an experience, and just popping in a CD is way less of an experience,” Judy Mills, co-owner of Westport record store Mills Record Company, said. “There’s the artwork; there’s the lyric sheet, it’s not super tiny; there’s the experience of putting the needle onto [the record].”

This year’s vinyl sales have risen 17% from last year’s, in which Americans purchased the most vinyl since 1997, according to the Pitch. According to Joshua Landau, employee at Kansas City record store Vinyl Renaissance, vinyl’s resurgence originated around 2005. Landau said he attributes the throwback to adolescents’ doubts over technological revolution.

“We’ve been overwhelmed by so much digital audio,” Landau said. “By now there’s so many different types of formats, I think people liked the idea of going back to something that’s tried and true.”

While Mills said some never ditched vinyl, young people’s fascination with the format created the sales boost.

“It feels like to me that it is [people aged] 18 to 24 [buying most vinyl],” Mills said. “That age group is a new convert, and they are zealous about it.”

Despite consumers’ disillusionment with CDs and MP3s, technology collaborates with vinyl, Mills said. According to Mills, music-streaming websites like Spotify expose listeners to artists popular on vinyl.

“I feel like now you can listen to anything on Spotify, and now you can try on, like, Patti Smith, who isn’t a new release,” Mills said. “And then you can decide, ‘I need to own [her albums on vinyl].’”

According to Landau, as vinyl profits have climbed, music blogs and media have championed a niche of bands. For example, Mills said Mills Record Company’s top-selling 2013 albums include the National’s “Trouble Will Find Me,” Arcade Fire’s “Reflektor” and Queens of the Stone Age’s “…Like Clockwork.”

“I think [vinyl’s resurgence has] been a snowball effect,” Landau said. “You see these blogs out there: Pitchfork, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan.”

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Similarly, junior Gracie Fleming said she associates vinyl with artists like the Beatles. The movement is less focused on vinyl’s sound, Fleming said, than the “hipster” culture to which the format is linked.

“I think as people started liking more vintage things, more vintage things have come into [rotation],” Fleming said.

Mills agreed vinyl sales contribute to a larger phenomenon, but credits the public’s interest with value rather than retro appeal.

“There is a sense for…a more old-fashioned, nostalgic time period, where things of quality are more important,” Mills said. “I feel like that’s certainly a wave, and records have fallen into that. I don’t want Starbucks, I want [Westport coffeehouse] Oddly Correct.”

However, vinyl’s popularity has surpassed its target audience. Although Fleming said she does not imagine people who love “straight pop music” purchasing record players, Landau said top-40 artists have experienced significant sales. Although audiophiles sought vinyl after rejecting the digital wave, vinyl’s digital-download components attract buyers.

“[Vinyl Renaissance has] seen a trend in more pop artists: Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake,” Landau said. “I think a lot of it has to do with the digital revolution that’s been happening. All the pieces of vinyl that are new have digital cards inside.”

As vinyl has sparked the public’s interest, corporations from Urban Outfitters to Target have seized the format, Landau and Mills said.

“Any company that has the ability to acquire vinyl is wanting to try it,” Landau said. “Not necessarily saying that [companies] really care about vinyl how [music lovers] do, but they see it as an opportunity.”

However, Landau said companies’ investments in vinyl cannot crush music fans’ fixation with the format.

“I think there’s a psychological advantage of [vinyl],” Landau said. “Some people have it on their walls and frame it. There’s a certain warmth to vinyl that people seem to hear and like about it.”