Because people don't buy vinyl to listen to it. I'm very sure that even from that half that own record players, most of them still don't listen to the ones they buy. Maybe they play it exactly once as a "test run", and then never again. And probably don't even play it all the way through. And at best, probably break out the record player like once every few months. Individual records seeing activity like once a year?
And the reason is... honestly, the same reason that vinyl died out in the first place. Because it's a terrible way to listen to music. And I'm not even talking about the worse sound quality, random unintended sound artifacts, and the fact that the records get degraded further every single time they are played. Some people even argue that they prefer this, for some baffling reason. But nah, ignore all that. The real low-key secret to why records died was because the music wasn't ACCESSIBLE. Portable, for example. Cassettes and CDs you can listen to in your car. While walking somewhere. Bring it with you to some outdoor event. A record player, on the other hand, means you can only listen to music when you're specifically sitting at home in your living room. Which not only can you also do with that CD player you just brought back from the backyard BBQ, but you probably also have a bunch of other things at home that you might want to do, instead of just solely dedicating your night to playing records. And this is even more ridiculous in the modern age, where you can just open your favorite attached-at-the-hip computing device, sign in to some service, and hit "play" on any song you want. People simply stopped listening to vinyl because it's a dumb and ineffective way to listen to music. The bad sound quality just helped drive away the hardcore dedicated "music is my whole afternoon" audiophiles also.
So when you hear about "vinyl resurgence", the question isn't "Why are more people listening to vinyl?" Because they're not. In fact, less people than ever are listening to vinyl. The question is "Why are more people BUYING vinyl"? And the article mentions a few good reasons. Most people are just putting it on their shelves. It's a decoration. It's a status symbol. A feel-good purchase. Maybe a dinner party conversation some day. And there's also a sizable number of people who are only buying it to flip it, since they see there's money to be made. And these reasons all line up really well with LRG, when you think about it. A considerable portion of people are just not buying these products to use them.
And yeah, if you do want to listen to vinyl, now's the best time to buy a player. They make them brand new, great quality, and there are even portable ones. I remember that getting a record player was a huge pain in the 2000s, and probably required you to learn how to fix it. But now it's super easy and cheaper than ever. The best thing to come out of this vinyl fad. Maybe we should also encourage LRG to do more VHSes, so we can get VCRs again...
