Why Analog is Making a Comeback
When did you last visit your local record shop? If your answer is recent, you may have noticed an influx of customers buying projects considered old and new. But, to the surprise of many, vinyl and film sales have seen an uptick in the digital age. Does this mean analog is making a comeback? This article discusses why some are taking a trip down memory lane.
Over the past decade, vinyl records have made a significant comeback. People purchased US $1.2 billion records in 2022, a 20% jump from the previous year. Not only did sales rise, but they surpassed CD sales for the first time since 1988, according to a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America. Billboard reported in January that manufacturers struggle to keep pace. The camera industry has also seen a spike in sales of 35mm film, which has made a comeback as well over the past three years. Cognitive Markert Research reported that the “Global Flim Market size will be $312.55 million by 2029 and Film Camera Industry compound average growth rate will be 3.74% from 2022 to 2029”. DVD sales accounted for less than 10% of the total market in 2018, with total sales of $2.2 billion. DVD sales have decreased significantly over the years. The lack of sales is likely due to the increasing popularity of streaming services, which offer more convenience and a more extensive content selection. Still, we’ll double back to this point later.
What's causing this uptick in sales of analog products? But, again, we have to look at social media; with every year that passes, younger participants yearn to carve out a niche for themselves, resulting in reverse engineering trends. For instance, many music lovers and stans buy vinyl to show their devotion to their favorite artists. In addition, they often decorate their living spaces or curate content around them by doing reviews to critique the design and quality. The increasing rate of high-definition phone cameras has brought about a sense of super-realism to these social media platforms that most need help to keep up with or choose not to participate in. This increased camera quality has caused some to revisit the film camera look. Grainy images with lens flare and a vintage look separates them from the millions of other users on these social media platforms. The first part of the underlying question can be answered with one word, aesthetics. In a world where most curate their identity online, it is paramount for them to carve out a lane for themselves.
The second part of the underlying question can also be answered in one word: ownership. In this digital age, we no longer have been encouraged to buy content but to rent. Again, we see this with music streaming platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify, where you can listen to whatever you want but must pay a monthly fee. We also see something similar with photographs. Nowadays, we have all of our memories backed up into the cloud where we trust they’ll be safe, but all it takes is one malfunction or backup, and they’re all gone years' worth of memories irretrievable. Film Photography fights against two problems we’ve faced in recent years: physical ownership and instant gratification. Today we can take a picture and see the results instantly, but with film photography, there is a process that we must go through to see the fruits of our labor. This process makes us feel a lot more connected to the photos we take and teaches skills we’re losing year after year. DVD will most likely undergo the same resurgence as its vinyl and film counterparts. As we’ve seen earlier, this year, HBO Max, now known as just Max, got rid of various movies and shows that can only be accessed through them as they reserve the rights to those intellectual properties. This decision isn’t dedicated to just Max; other streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime can do the same. Which begs the question, what are we paying for if these platforms can take away our favorite comfort show/movie? We should be urged to move away from a renter mindset to an owner mindset and prevent these big corporations from taking advantage of our busy day-to-day lives; find more gratification in waiting to consume our favorite media and rest easy knowing that we own what we paid for.