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Rumors regarding the death of vinyl have been greatly exaggerated and the music industry is the primary blame. As a long time vinyl collector who meticulously maintained my albums and turntables, I struggled with the numerous format changes over the years and the space requirements for a growing vinyl collection with a life of its own.
My collection survived the numerous format changes over the years: 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs and eventually the mp3 revolution. Unlike many of my contemporaries, I did not replace my entire album collection once the music came out on CD. Why? I already had it. Sure, CDs were more convenient and "clean" without the pops and hiss of the crude vinyl format but I discovered early on that CDs lacked one thing vinyl had: extended dynamic range.

I really don't remember the "first" vinyl I purchased. I joined a record club and snapped up Chuck Berry's Greatest Hits, Ray Charles, some early Temptations and the Mamas and the Papas for starters. For the next few years, I didn't purchase vinyl since I had a reel-to-reel hooked up to record what I wanted directly off the radio. The pirate's life was so much easier then. Only a decade later did my vinyl habit genuinely "kick in". Just because I'm a dinosaur doesn't mean I didn't evolve, and I did purchase "newer" music on the CD format, later graduating to mp3s. But I never got rid of vinyl; in fact, during the heyday of everyone downsizing their vinyl music collections, I picked up hundreds of albums for just a song. Old libraries were practically just giving the things away. What I ended up with was a massive collection of barely played (if at all) vinyl in all genres. Slowly but surely going through each box and categorizing what I had, I was delighted to discover such rarities as trumpet legend Bix Beiderbecke and early Beverly Sills. Sound tracks from some of the best musicals of the century were still virginal on thick, heavy vinyl, heavy enough to stop a bullet. You could sharpen up the edges and decapitate someone, if need be. But, why collect vinyl?

We were led to believe in the 80's that CD format would insure music would last forever. In theory, the media was supposed to be virtually indestructible with normal use, but as we learned, that was not quite accurate. While the media is indeed durable, the ultra-thin coating on the surface is not. Subject to oxidation, scratches and general deterioration, CDs can become unplayable in just a few years, as a laser is less forgiving of imperfections

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