Vinyl records ruled the format wars for close to 60 years. Basically, because it was the only format available that wasn’t a total pain in the ass to use. A vinyl record can hold up to 45 minutes of music per side though, the average is about 30-35 mins.

After 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs came along, each new format halved the time the previous standard format had ruled the retail shelves. And for a short time iPods and MP3 players trumped all the formats due to portability cravings. Though, to be fair, the people had been clamoring for a sensible, portable format since the original cassette walkman.

Sometime in say 2006/2007 the vinyl record returned with a rotating vengeance (< see what I did there). The hardcore fans of vinyl were still there and had been there all along. You could still buy a copy of most new albums from most record labels, but they were pressing markedly less and they usually cost a few bucks more.

Gen X’ers and Gen Y kids flipped on their parents’ basement lights and went digging for their parent’s vinyl, finally figuring out that Stevie Nicks was neither a dude, nor did she play for the New York Knicks. Fed up with hollow CD overproduced, overpriced, lacking of visuals, the CD quickly squeezed itself out as the unnecessary middle man. THE COMPACT DISC IS DEAD. LONG LIVE THE COMPACT DISC. I have nothing against the CD, after all it was my preferred childhood format and I have over 14 milk crates brimming with CDs still in my basement.

Convenience and capacity no longer dictate format. Quality wins. The length a human being wants a record to be is around 30-40 minutes, and that’s only going to get incrementally smaller, paralleling with our shrinking attention spans.

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