Bring back the 8-track
One story doing the rounds this week has been the news that sales of vinyl records have outperformed CDs for the first time since the 1980s. I was quite surprised to hear it being being covered on the local radio news here in SA. Surprised for a few reasons because a) this isn’t a new story, b) it relates solely to six months’ of sales in the US, and c) it’s not that vinyl is suddenly the lockdown listen of choice, rather that vinyl will always have some appeal, while CDs are obsolete and were never loved in the first place, so sales are dropping through the floor in the age of digital. Bad to data literacy school, journalists.
Adam Oxford is a freelance journalist, media consultant and civic tech enthusiast. He also works closely with startups developing solutions to access to justice problems.