Addicted to Vinyl

In the age of digital downloads, iTunes, iPod and internet radio, one particular musical medium remains valuable to our parents and grand-parents alike: vinyl records. While CDs (and digital downloads in particular) have supplanted the LP as the main musical outlet for consumers, vinyl records continue to exist as collector's items for not only the older, but also the younger generations yearning for the old days.

Two such vinyl record outlets exist in Makati Cinema Square and in Tiendesitas. There was once a vinyl record outlet in Kamuning, Quezon City but it no longer exists. The stores in Tiendesitas situate near the antique furniture stores. When you get to see a variety of long-playing records your forefathers used to play, you may think that it's still in good condition. Unfortunately you may not look at it that way. First of all, the sellers sell the vinyl records in a furniture store and with chance of dust potentially hurting the quality of these records. In addition they do not have any of the vintage phonographs to test the record's quality. For any record hunter, the ones in Tiendesitas may not be the right choice for buying a good quality LP.

The record stores in Makati Cinema Square provide a lot of good finds for vintage LPs. In addition to a library of vinyl records inside, they also sell vintage turntables in good condition. Some of them also offer LP to MP3 transfers as well. They also sell 12-inches EP singles of select 80s club hits, ones usually heard on 80s radio programs. They also allowed test playing to evaluate its condition, something that the Tiendesitas sellers don't offer. And since it is located indoors, the sellers there ensure that the products are well-maintained and in good working condition.

In addition to the now-defunct Phoenix Record Store in Kamuning, Music One in Greenbelt, Makati was once a great source for collecting vinyl records. Sadly, the store closed in late 2010 owing to the emergence of digital downloads as a major force in the music industry. This goes to show the gradual decline of what was once a very blossoming industry, which now belongs to only two major record stores: Odyssey and Astrovision.

With the domination of all digital formats over physical consumables such as the CD record, does this mean the gradual extinction of what was once a standard of determining the success of a particular album or song? Unless the loyal music lover would be encouraged to buy authentic and original records, it may come to the conclusion that the 'MP3 had killed the DJ.'