When music started being broken down into ones and zeros so it could be streamed online, it looked like it was game over for old-school records.
But vinyl has refused to go away and there will be queues outside record shops across the country on Saturday as music fans mark World Record Store day.
They might also be competing for records released to mark the occasion, with some expected to be “like gold dust”, according to Eoife Clarke of Golden Discs.
“We look forward to this day every year and while we have new releases throughout the year, it is a different kettle of fish on World Record Store day,” she said.
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There are now 18 Golden Discs outlets around Ireland and they will start opening their shutters from 8am on Saturday. When they do, some of Ireland’s record buying public will likely to be waiting for them.
“This is like our Christmas and there will be such a buzz about the place,” Ms Clarke said.
But what will people be queuing for?
“The big draws will be the Olivia Rodrigo and Noah Kahan duet of Stick Season and the limited edition Pearl Jam album,” Ms Clarke said.
How limited is limited?
“We only have one per store,” she said “That’s going to be like gold dust.”
There are also special releases from U2, the Cranberries and Fleetwood Mac to mark the day.
Ms Clarke did not miss a beat when asked why people would compete to buy records when they can just as handily stream the music from their phones.
“It is a completely different experience,” she said. “You get your record, you take it out of its sleeve and hold it in your hands. You place it on your record player and the needle goes down and you have that crispness. It’s a different work of art on vinyl.”
There is also, she pointed out, none of this skipping songs business that has come to define the streaming generation. “When I started in Golden Discs vinyl was niche but now it has started to dominate again.”
Speaking of domination, there is no-one bossing the record buying world more than Taylor Swift, who released her 11th studio album, the Tortured Poets Department, just ahead of World Record Store Day.
“We had more queues outside the shops for that,” Ms Clarke said. “She is an absolute phenomenon, there is no-one like her.”
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