Vinyl is not vinyl. In 1888 a man named Emile Berliner created the first flat disc. These were between 12-18cm, somewhat bigger than the CD we loved and saw disappear. The 45cm LPs(Long Play) that we know today began to truly appear during World War 2. After complaints of low prisoner morale the American government had them sent to POW camps to cheer them up. At the time vinyl was a very expensive material but the specific circumstances allowed the military to free up some of its budget to pay for them.

In 1941 Columbia Records began researching ways to fit more music onto them. That research was put on hold when WW2 broke out but then rebooted in 1945 before they were officially introduced in 1948. Columbia released two kinds of records, a 25cm version and a 30cm version. The popularity of LPs among music labels grew so fast that Columbia went so far to copyright the term “LP”.

Change would not give the LP much time. In 1950 the first reel-to-reel tape was introduced but it’s high price kept the LP safe. When the price of those dropped, in the form of cassette tapes, the LP seemed to be losing the music battle. The first instances of piracy appeared when people recorded the music being played on the radio or from a friend’s LP to play it back at home. That was followed in 1983 by the release of the CD which continue to drive down price of music and eventually push the LP into a niche category. Since then we’ve had the MP3, an enormous boost in piracy and most recently the unlimited streaming of music online.

Specialized music stores are now gone and it’s near impossible to find an LP in the common consumer electronics stores. So it would be normal to assume that they’ve been relegated to the graveyard along with the cassette and the CD. But no, they can still be purchased. In 2014 Nielsen reported that the Vinyl was seeing it’s ninth consecutive year of sales growth, even up by more than half compared to the year before. But this number is to be taken with a grain of salt. Physical music sales-ie purchasing an album or a single on cassette, cd or LP-were down across the board. Yet Vinyl was the only strong part of that category. LPs have now had their comeback and the music industry continues to change. Whether vinyl will once again adapt to survive the future of the music industry will remain to be seen.