Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
SOMERVILLE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — According to a survey by Vinyl Alliance, 37% of Gen Z vinyl buyers are using their records as a form of home decor.
Wayne Rogers, owner of Stereo Jacks in Somerville, is skeptical that they're not getting play-time.
“I would put more stock in if I knew people who did that or knew customers who did that,” Rogers said. “I don't know anyone who does that.”
Other local record store owners told WBZ NewsRadio that they had, in-fact, seen younger customers use records just as decoration, but that in large part, the vinyl was also being played.
Rogers said young people's desire for vinyl has always been there, but that music companies have begun to put out physical records of modern artists like Taylor Swift and Sabrina Carpenter, and Gen-Z is buying those up. He said that the demand for new artists on vinyl had gone unsatisfied among younger customers at one point.
“It's almost like the companies have caught up with the market rather than the market changing,” Rogers said.
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It's also a way for Gen Z to support their favorite artists, according to the survey. But in the world of streaming, many fans have already listened to the album before they get their hands on a physical copy. It's a phenomenon that Rogers acknowledges has evolved over the years.
“That didn't used to be the case. A new record came out [and] you wanted to hear it, you bought it,” he said.
Meantime, the survey says 56% of Gen Z buyers find vinyl appealing for its aesthetic value. Rogers wasn't against the idea of buying vinyl for the art. On the contrary, he said that this practice has always existed.
“There's people who collect record covers of records that are just terrible, and they know they are, but they buy them for the covers and they put them on their wall,” Rogers said.
WBZ NewsRadio’s Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.