If CDs are the past and cassettes belong to history, vinyls are now part of the sphere of archaeology. Yet, in recent times, it is precisely the old and bulky black discs that have been given a commercial facelift.
According to the latest data from the British Phonographic Industry, since the beginning of 2013, copies sold in Great Britain have been 550 and with the Christmas boom, they could reach the sidereal share of 700. Double compared to last year, for a total economic spin-off of 13 billion pounds. As for Italy, our country is the seventh world market for vinyl and the fourth in Europe behind Germany, Great Britain, France and Holland.
The fate of vinyl - which hasn't seen such a rosy year since 2001 - has been revived by various artists, English and non-English: from Daft Punk to the Arctic Monkeys, passing through his majesty David Bowie, the Rolling Stones and Pearl Jam. Heavyweights who couldn't resist the temptation to have their name printed on the square covers with a vintage flavour.
The doubt is always the same: isn't it just a retro fashion, suspended between snobbery and nostalgia for true or presumed connoisseurs? Apparently not, or at least not entirely, given that as many as a third of the most avid consumers of the analog format are under-35. Music, it should be said, for the ears of record companies, which for some years now have continued to increase investments in vinyl pressings. To survive the internet, going back to the past is one of the few ways.
