VINYLS, like many other physical forms of media, are making a comeback, with 2023 marking the highest level of vinyl sales since 1990.

With the evolving landscape of streaming - millions of tracks conveniently able to stream on a number of devices, why are we turning back to physical media?

I grew up listening to music, particularly on Spotify; I would make playlists music from TV shows and films that I had seen, and hit shuffle.

But I also fell down the rabbit hole of collecting records a couple of years ago, despite vinyl being arguably more expensive and less convenient.

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It's not only records that are seeing this rise, with the number of indie bookshops the highest in a decade as of 2023, disposable cameras are becoming a trend across social media platforms.

I think this rise can be attributed to many factors, the main two boil down to the experience of collecting/buying physical media and the flood of digital content.

Firstly, the experience; when speaking to people about this topic, I have often heard the remark 'there's nothing like the smell of a new book', on which I highly agree.

Walking into a record shop, or a bookstore, and perusing the selections is 'my idea of a very nice day out'. It becomes less about the product itself and more about the experience as a whole, it seems more rewarding to dig through shelves to find the one thing you were looking for.

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Secondly, and in my opinion, the most influential factor, is the overwhelming amount of content everywhere.

The ease of adding a book to your list online, placing five new albums on your playlist, or taking a hundred pictures in one day trip, means that to find one specific song/picture/book, requires you to scroll through masses and masses of others.

Physical media allows you to be more selective, on a disposable camera, you take five 'nice' pictures with friends instead of 50 of anything and everything, which you will never look at again.

The fast-paced nature of online content has propelled the nation's love for having physical copies of what they hold near and dear, and I for one, am thrilled.