The Digital World and It’s Cousin… 33 1/3 Vinyl

As the world races and pivots on all digital technologies, it has taken a moment in time to embrace our old friend, 33 1/3 vinyl recordings. The enjoyment of listening to a more pleasing sound is heightened by the cherished ceremony of removing the platter from the protective sleeve and gingerly placing it onto the turntable. Thirty-three and one third vinyl has made a surge into our life that was seen as a fading format 30 years ago. That portion of the hobby has blossomed again. In our single use throwaway society, it is a breath of hope to see recordings in their colorful artful dust covers that can be saved to enjoy again and again.

With current sales dwarfed by the peak in the 1980’s, there are many sales that are achieved through garage sales, thrift stores or venues such as ebay and Discogs Marketplace. Urban Outfitters, Hastings, Hot Topic and other large retailers are contributing to record sales. Along with those retailers we have our proud small business base of entrepreneurs who band together as “Record Stores”, to stock those 33 1/3 recordings that once were thought to be going extinct with the advent of the compact disc. In 2020, Record Store Day Black Friday festivities helped vinyl album sales to best week ever in Nielsen Music/MRC Data era (1991-present), as reported by Keith Caulfield of Billboard.

I’ve seen during my 50-plus years of collecting that proper storage enhances and secures your investment for the future. BCW Supplies has numerous record supplies to store your collection. To protect record jackets, there are 2mil and 4mil thick polypropylene bags and sleeves (the bags have a flap, while the sleeves are open on one edge). For the discs themselves, BCW offers inner sleeves and poly lined sleeves. Hard storage protection such as toploaders, and blank outer album covers for 33 1/3 and 45 rpm will further extend the shelf life of the vinyl treasures. Additionally, BCW offers storage boxes, wrap mailers, and dividers for both formats.