There are a lot anti-vinyl sentiments being scattered around the the web these days. From the concept that record collectors are doing nothing more than collecting a tsunami of toxic waste to the reports that the record industry has one foot in the grave; I am here to set the record straight on these two topics and toss my opinion in regarding a few bits of mis-information being thrown around.
1. The Record Industry Is In Decline.
But, I will say that if you believed the WSJ article, you would be believing a series manufactured statistics, taken out of context, that indicated a "small dip" in vinyl sales spells the end of the world for the record industry. Much in the same the phrase "Blood is thicker than water." is today taken to mean family is more important than friends. When in reality, the context of the original phrase was "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." which is a reference to the bond of soldiers shedding blood together being more important and stronger than the bonds of families.
The fact is, the record industry is healthy and growing.
All industries experience swings, both up and down, in sales; from automobiles to food to diapers. The WSJ did not report that there was lack of growth in sales, but rather that the growth in 2016 had not been as high as it was the previous years and that this decline in growth was cause for us to throw in the towel.
It a commonly observed and respected that in any given industry, healthy growth is considered to be between 2% and 3% year to year. There is a boom of growth in any industry's growth as adoption is high, meaning consumers are clamoring for the product and this typically happens with new products showing a 10% or more growth during this boom. Vinyl sales experienced that as the number of millennials discovered vinyl and older generations found the love of the medium again. Depending on the size of the industry, this number can, of course, fluctuate, but a mature, large industry growth at a rate of 2% to 3% is considered good, especially in an industry as old as music. So 12% growth is far from the "death of vinyl' as the WSJ article would like you to think.
Now I did write a post a few weeks back regarding the possibility of the vinyl bubble bursting, but my post had more do with over-saturation in the manufacturing industry, repressings and the impact this could have in arena of used record sales (which sales numbers are not tracked). What my post did not analyze was market reports. It was focused on manufacturing saturation.
The fact remains: Records sales were still reporting 12% growth in 2016; way above the average for an industry of this size and maturity. This is considered in good health. Sony recently announced they were reopening their record pressing plants in Japan because of the success of records in the marketplace. Sony may screw a lot of things up, but Sony doesn't usually make a decision like this if the market is on a downward slide. There is a great retort to the WSJ article by the guy named Daniel Sanchez. I would suggest you check it out.
2. Your Record Collection Is Bad For The Environment
It is cool today to shame anything that is popular. Be it body-shaming, salary-shaming or green-shaming. If it s popular, it appears to be shame worthy. Hell, I am openly opinion-shaming in this article and even admitted it, but at least I am admitting it.
The general nature of the current debate is that records are worse for the environment than digital or CD formats. This is being widely spread online. From articles claiming the environmental impacts being devastating to an essay from an artist claiming he would never release another album on vinyl because of the impact of the environment.
The environmental hysterics all stem from one little toxic compound...
Polyvinyl chloride, PVC, which is the material most records are made from, is a plastic compound that requires a stabilizer like barium, zinc and calcium carboxylates (and until recently, Lead). PVC is commonly regarded as the most toxic of the plastics in the family of plastics because one of the main ingredients; vinyl chloride as it is a known human carcinogen (cancer causing agent).
But what you may not hear in these doomsday articles is that PVC is also commonly found in the following products; Pipes (including pipes delivering drinking water, approved in 2007 by California), electrical cables, siding for houses, decals, automobiles, clothing (Goth, Punk, fetish and other alternative fashion wear) as well as waterproof sportswear (ski gear, shoes, aprons and handbags), flooring materials and even in our healthcare (tubing used for blood work, catheters, heart-lung bypass sets, hemodialysis and even as an alternative to latex gloves)... and so much more... like greenhouses, home playgrounds, foam and other toys (action and inaction figures), custom truck toppers (tarpaulins), ceiling tiles... the list literally goes on and on and on.
Our lives are basically surrounded with PVC. So records are no worse for you than eating a burger, potato salad and chips off a reusable plastic plate at a BBQ, or reheating your lunch contained in a PVC plastic container in the microwave. Seriously.
And if you use a device that has a rechargeable battery, well let me tell you something about these things. Lithium batteries contain electrolytes called super-halogens, and majority of these super-halogens also happen to be toxic halogens. Oh and while we are on the topic of super-halogens, breathing some toxic super-halogens gases at a concentration of 0.1% for several minutes is actually lethal.
And the reality is, lithium-ion battery technology is not safe. Short circuits, overcharging, over-discharging, crushing, and high temperatures can lead to what is known as a thermal runaway; a fire that leads to an explosion. Even if your battery doesn't experience thermal runaway, one study found that Lithium batteries when heated up, during normal use of a device, leaked more than 100 toxic gases including carbon monoxide.
Have you ever heard of a record leaking toxic gases during normal use? Better yet, have you ever heard of a record experiencing thermal runaway? I mean Van Halen's 1984 was hot and all, but it never spontaneously burst into flames and exploded on me during playback. Has a record ever released a gas so toxic that exposure to even the smallest concentration of it for a mere few minutes could prove lethal?
And CDs aren't much better in the plastics toxicity arena. CDs are... plastic. Duh Dun Duuuuun. Their cases are... you guessed it, plastic. All plastics come from petroleum. Guess what petroleum is; toxic.
Another argument is that records weigh more than CDs and therefore use more fuel in the shipping process. You know what weighs as much or more than records that gets shipped? Cars, turkeys, hams, canned foods, frozen vegetables, Cards Against Humanity.
There is no perfectly green solution when it comes living. The worst thing to happen to this planet is humans. Sorry... that just happens to be a true statement.
And yes, the making of music has an environmental impact. Hell the music making process is filled with plastics; instruments have plastics, including PVC. Amps, tuners, guitar picks, mixing boards, microphones, cables, speakers... all have toxic materials used in their manufacturing process. A tree or two are cut down to make a single guitar. A baby llama is scarified every time Justin Beiber releases a new album. Just so we have full disclosure, the llama/Beiber reference was just a joke.
My point is, humans can't get away from having an environmental impact. And while I am not condoning the slash-burning millions of acres of rain forest, you know because I recycle, I am asking you to not let the uninformed chicken littles of the world tell you the sky is falling just because they have their own trend they're following. Be responsible, but enjoy life as much as you can, because life is too short to not enjoy it.
In Conclusion
But records are no more dangerous to us or the environment than CDs, digital music players or anything else for that matter. Yes there are risks. Yes, there are costs, but these can be and are being mitigated through the most modern green manufacturing processes. And as we learn more, the manufacturing processes get greener and safer every year.
I would argue that a good record collector, one that looks for a used pressing instead of buying a newly pressed reissue, which keeps the old pressing out of the landfills, is probably more environmentally friendly than the person that buys a digital music player/streamer that has to be disposed of after two years because the lithium battery doesn't hold a charge anymore and isn't replaceable by the consumer; that's right Apple I am calling you out for that starting that money grabbing trend called disposable consumer electronics.
See, just I just apple-shamed.
My turntable has been around since 1973 and it still works great. Show me any digital player (iPhone, iPod, Zune, Galaxy or other device) that can even come close to experiencing that much longevity; 44 years. Show me a CD that was made in the mid to late 80s that is still playable. I have a record that was pressed in 1923 that plays like it was new. When compared to the two to three year life span of a cellphone, or Black Friday television, old music formats and vintage electronics used to play them far better on the environment than anything made today.
Furthermore the record industry remains in good health; for the time being. If you're gonna have a heart attack every time you look at record sales numbers, I strongly recommend you don't ever track your weight or the stock market on a weekly basis, let along daily; the ups and downs on those measures would likely cause you the clutch your chest and fall over.
My advice, stop letting the fear mongering media scare you away from your passion. Quit clicking on the links that are obviously click-bait titles. I'm not saying that the toxic components used the manufacturing process of records haven't caused harm in this world, there is plenty of evidence that would contradict any claim like that. What I am saying though is that records have been relatively safe and around for longer than any of us have been alive; and I'm old, so that's saying a lot. And more importantly, records will likely remain around for decades to come and they will only become safer to manufacture in the future.
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