Never Let Vinyl Down Again

Vinyl is back - or rather, has been back. And nostalgia is not the only reason for it. Since 2006, the sales of the vinyl records have been growing globally, which led to the creation of the term - the vinyl revival. One might think this a rather odd phenomenon to take place in the age of digital music, which provides higher convenience with more affordable prices than ever before in the history. Vinyl records, with their fragility, higher prices and technical requirements seem to request the most effort from the consumers, yet it is this specific format that endures its resurgence. Therefore, consumers do not long for any type of physicality, but this specific one, that is more demanding. Consumers clearly care about vinyl records. Vinyl records can be said to carry a special cultural status, which might make it difficult to think of these objects as a part of a bigger strategy of the music industry. Moreover, the comeback of vinyl records into the market would not be possible if it was not for the industry that has decided to supply them. Therefore, this thesis attempts to explore how vinyl records are imbued with strategic thinking of record labels - major and independent. By means of quantitative content analysis, this research uses a sample of 400 vinyl releases from 2009 and 2023, sourced from Discogs, and explores how often various features of vinyl records occur and which ones are more to be linked with majors and independents. The findings suggest that major labels comply with the expectations and theory - they follow mass appeal and a commercial logic when designing their releases. Independent labels, however, do not show one shared strategic approach, apart from one unexpected element - coloured records, which might be linked to their tight connections with their niche markets, that have their own aesthetic conventions shaping what releases look like.