In case you haven’t noticed, the “analogue revival” continues at pace, perhaps most noticeably spearheaded by the wonder of vinyl records. The format that was once relegated to the charity shop and car boot sale is now, once again, the industry’s best-selling format. Barely one million new vinyl albums were sold in the United States in 2006. By 2023, it had steadily grown to 49 million pressings annually. In the UK, such is the phenomenal comeback of vinyl that the National Office of Statistics is again using it as one of the products with which to create the Consumer Price Index and measure inflation. Vinyl matters again.
There’s, of course, a long history of audiophilia and sonic hardware craft in the UK. Brands with a rich heritage like Cambridge Audio, bespoke builders like Kevin Scott of Living Voice, and Linn Products, where Jonny Ive has recently created a limited edition of the Sondek turntable. Yours for around £3k. And whilst the fashions of London’s Soho come and go, stores like Sister Ray, Reckless Records, and Sounds of the Universe are long-standing institutions.
It’s tempting to think that this is largely the sentimental pursuit of middle-aged men who grew up in the 80s. But standing in the queue on the opening day of the new Rough Trade store in Liverpool, I was rubbing shoulders with a cross-generational and cross-genre bunch of music lovers. Take a trip to one of our favourite haunts, Spirit Land in Kings Cross, and you’ll see just how young and progressive this analogue music gathering really is. Back in the US, one in every 15 vinyl albums sold last year was by Taylor Swift. That’s over 3 million copies and around 7% of all sales. This is an artist whose core audience grew up with streaming services, not hi-fi separates and the crackle of the stylus.
Cynics put it all down to the dark arts of marketing and a smart repackaging of the past. That might carry some weight if it was just a music phenomenon and the analogue obsession didn’t extend to other categories. A similar exciting trend continues in other spaces like magazine publishing and photography, where Polaroid photography is popular enough for Leica to want a piece of the instant action.
Maybe the whole thing is just a collective reminiscence. A longing for simpler days during times of uncertainty. Perhaps the race towards a digitally saturated life left millions of us feeling just a little bit empty, hungry for the touch of something real, textured, and multi-sensory. Whatever the psychological cause, I sit at the bar at Café Mancuso in Bordeaux—vinyl store, vintage sound system, open kitchen, and cocktail bar—and, for the moment, all is right with the world.
At Marble, we deliver brand experiences over mere ‘events.’ Yes, digital where it matters, but memorably physical, immersive, and tactile. This autumn, we’re launching our quarterly Marble Social Events, where talks, ideation, and knowledge sharing meet lo-fi food and drink and, of course, analogue sound.