Vinyl Recordings Sales Show Best Results Since 1997

A vinyl recording included
in Life Magazine, circa mid-1960s

We have a lot of vinyl recordings. They're original issue from a time when 33s were the best sound game in town. Vinyl fell out of favor with the advent of cassettes, CDs, MP3s, and streaming. Only nostalgia buffs, audio fanatics, and quite a number of working musicians preferred vinyl's analog to data-driven digital sound.

In recent years, vinyl has made a small, but significant comeback. A story in today's Washington Post noted that vinyl music sales reached their highest level since 1997. Intriguingly, one reason for the uptick in popularity is the tangible nature of vinyl. You can hold it, feel it, hear it. Vinyl has a reality that digital just can't match. And that's a very interesting notion in a time when triumphalist technology is accepted as the greatest possible good.

Neil Young Claim: Steve Jobs Listened to Vinyl

Musician Neil Young, in a story originally reported by the Associated Press, claimed that Steve Jobs loved to listen to music. The issue was that the deceased, virtually deified Apple-onian preferred to take in the tunes on vinyl. No compressed digital files were quite good enough for Jobs' ears.

The ironic story, confirmed by Jobs biographer Walter Mossberg, appears in today's siliconvalley.com.