Vinyl sales hit their peak in 2017 and approximately 14.32 million records were sold  according to Nielsen.

Billboard found that in the past twelve years, vinyl sales have been steadily increasing in the United States. Now, it is much more common to find record stores and people have easy access to buying this type of music medium from many chains like Urban Outfitters and Barnes and Nobles.

As vinyl gains popularity, more and more at Cherry Hill East are joining the vinyl trend and buying record players. One of those students is Hope Seybold (‘19). After wanting a record player for awhile, Seybold finally bought one in December of 2017.

“I’m really into music and I thought the idea of being able to have the physical version of my favorite albums was really cool,” she said.

In her opinion, vinyl is a unique way to listen to music and it has many great features that you do not get from only listening to music digitally.

“I like to use it because it’s pretty and vinyl has a distinct sound,” Seybold said, “music sounds really great when it’s played on vinyl.”

One nearby record store is Tunes in Voorhees. Tunes has multiple locations and has spread across New Jersey since they opened in 1989.

Sam Palombo and Matt Wenzel are both employees at the local Tunes. According to Palombo and Wenzel, people tend to buy vinyl for a variety of reasons: some like the “crackle” sound the record makes, some like physically holding the music in their hands and others just buy them for decoration. Although vinyl has its benefits, it’s not considered as convenient as many other mediums people use to listen to music, which makes its surge in popularity particularly surprising.

“It has a more…organic sound than just listening to it on your phone. It’s a lot easier to just take out Spotify, though,” Wenzel said.

Some people believe that this new surge in popularity is due primarily to the younger generations. However, Wenzel said it is quite the opposite.

“I understand why someone would think it would all be younger people, but people who come in really range from 14-60,” Wenzel said. The many benefits of vinyl attract costumers that span across generations.

As millions of vinyl records sell, the number of people interested is only bound to increase. With a nine percent increase in vinyl sales in just this past year, there is no telling how much more the vinyl industry will grow.