RoyalPineapple is an insufferable fuck

The writer describes himself as a "late adopter" of vinyl, because he didn't get involved until a decade into its revival.

This, of course, is wrong.

Or at best, misleading.

In fact, his great-great-grandson could start buying vinyl in 3033, and that person would still be an early adopter.

Why? Because he'd still be very "early" compared to the point-of-reference: the mainstream.

He'd still be one of a relatively-tiny percentage choosing to use vinyl (instead of adapting to it because it's become the dominant format).

Clearly, the mass-market is never going to go back to vinyl. Never going to give up the convenience of streaming in favour of having a record-player rigged up to the car, Laurel and Hardy style.

This is part of vinyl's appeal! It's an expensive and demanding niche interest, willfully outside the mainstream.

It's for people who are religiously passionate about the analog music experience, not those who simply want something on in the background.

So treating it as if it's a "fast growth" category—as if we were creating a new piece of software to streamline and make cheaper—misses the whole point of what makes it special to the very people who invest in it!

Not that he's wrong about music industry greed, of course. But the point is that there's always a challenge when transferring a niche interest into the mass market.

Because you end up shooting at two different targets (niche interest/mass market)... and usually end up hitting neither.

Making it cheaper, more modern, more streamlined... all this works if you're marketing toothpaste or tins of beans. Less so for an ancient technology where its archaic qualities are the whole point.

So if we put down the graphs and charts and misleading growth forecasts for a second, I think we can all clearly understand that vinyl was never going to be a dominant format ever again.

Regardless of what short-sighted errors the record companies have made... and will continue to make.