The radio & gramophone House in New Delhi’s Connaught Place established in 1951 invokes nostalgia. As you climb up the steps to the first-floor store, you hear Lata Mangeshkar’s crystal clear voice singing “Lag ja gale ki phir...” It’s a vinyl record of a collection of her songs playing on a turntable. Everything about the whole set-up is very old school—just like the name of the store—rows and rows of vinyls, a couple of gramophones, several turntables—except for the customers. Rajul Yadav, 31, and Shikha Sinha, 29, became vinyl heads—a term used to describe those obsessed with the analogue medium—during the pandemic when a friend introduced them to records. “Once you go analogue you don’t go back,” laughs Sinha who works in a Delhi-based publishing house. Agrees Yadav, an HR manager in a global firm: “The quality of music on analogue is so superior that I can’t bring myself to listen to the same song on Spotify anymore.”
While vinyl records may seem like a relic of a time gone by, they are making a comeback and are attracting an increasingly younger audience. At Radio & Gramophone House, between 25 and 30 per cent of the customers are in their 30s or below, says Sunil Jain, the proprietor. The store, which sells digital players, Bluetooth speakers, stereo systems and all things electronic, gets nearly 70 per cent of its sales from records and turntables, says Jain.
It’s the same story across the country at Mumbai’s Revolver Club, a vinyl store established in 2017. “There are two types of collectors: either those who have already been collecting… these are typically older people with access to more disposable income. The second is the younger generation that is seeing more references to records in pop culture. A large number of TV shows today have a reference to a turntable or record. Younger people are being exposed to records, encouraging them to get into the hobby,” says 35-year-old Jude de Souza, Founder of the Revolver Club. Nearly 40 per cent of his clientele is Gen Z, and he sells between 800-1,000 records a month. “There’s definitely a revival of the record. We are growing nearly 100 per cent year-on-year,” says de Souza.
Globally the vinyl market size was $1.5 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $2.6 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 8.4 per cent, as per a report by market research firm IMARC.
Nehal Shah, a self-confessed vinyl lover, set up India Record Co.—an online store for all things analogue—in November 2020. “The image of a vinyl collector used to be a 50-plus man sitting with his whisky and cigar, dropping the needle and listening to slow jazz music. That whole thing is changing now. The younger generation is looking at vinyl as a medium to connect with the artist and bring the artist home. It is pure music, no ads, no screen, no algorithms,” she says. Nearly 45 per cent of Shah’s buyers are below 30 and while maximum demand comes from Bengaluru, she also has customers in Ranchi, Raipur, Jodhpur, Bhopal, etc.
Recently the Record Room, a vinyl bar, opened in Bengaluru. Presented by Nakul Bhonsle, Akshar Halgali and Karthik Chandrasekaran, it serves craft beer and has a listening station to cater to both the vinyl connoisseur and the vinyl curious. “The three of us had our respective affairs with vinyl at very different times in our lives. We were collaborating to work on craft beer together. That’s when we realised we had this common love for vinyl. And we thought this would add a very interesting layer to the existing craft beer scene in the city,” says Chandrasekaran, Co-founder of Record Room. In the past two months since they opened, they have seen a large number of young people come in to enjoy the music. “We see a good range of young people who are holding a record for the first time in their lives and experiencing the joy of analogue through our listening stations,” adds Bhonsle. The Record Room that has a full-time vinyl programme director has a versatile music collection from 1940 to 2020— across genres, from rock to pop, funk, jazz, and blues—and organises events such as vinyl jukebox and ‘Bring Your Own Vinyl’ to encourage more listeners.
In Goa, Bulund Shukla, an audiophile opened For The Record, a vinyl bar in Panjim in January 2020, fashioned around the vinyl bars of Tokyo, where the focus is on the music and local spirits. He also has a vinyl store which pre-pandemic only catered to foreign tourists. “When I started, people came only for the curiosity factor. Now they come to buy for themselves or pick up a gift. Thirty per cent of my clientele that comes to the bar has already heard music on vinyl.”
While love for vinyl is growing in the country, it is an expensive proposition. On an average a record costs between `2,000-3,000. A rare one can even go up to `10,000. Then there is the question of the turntable. While the sky is the limit for high-end turntables, amps and speakers, you can get a good turntable for under `30,000. This can be connected to any set of speakers with an aux wire. “For those starting out, I recommend a Denon or a Marantz,” says Shah. However, if you want the real deal then you need to buy an amp that will push you back further by around `60,000. “My advice for anyone getting into the vinyl world is to not buy extremely fancy gear. You can get a full music system, that is, turntable and speakers for within `30,000. So even if you have a larger budget, I recommend that you start off with a basic system and focus on building your collection of 50-100 LPs. That will determine if the hobby is going to stay for the long term or not,” says de Souza. He further adds that once you know you are in it for the long term, invest around `2 lakh for a good system that will last you a lifetime. “The stereo system tech doesn’t change.”
“It’s an expensive hobby but a very satisfying one,” says Aneesh Bhasin, Co-founder of artisanal tonic water Svami who has around 100 records. “Hearing it on the vinyl is the closest to hearing someone live. Some albums just sound spectacular on vinyl compared to any other medium.”
@smitabw