Blog #7 Diffusion of innovation- Vinyl Records

Vinyl records are perhaps the greatest, if not one of the greatest innovations to ever come to music. In 1930 the first long-playing vinyl record was launched as plastic discs. Then in 1948 Columbia Records began releasing Polyvinyl chloride records; which could play more music than their predecessors. They then eventually moved from 78 rpm (rotations per minute) to 33 rpm. The record was so innovative because it was the first piece of technology that allowed people to listen to the music they wanted, whenever they wanted, from anywhere they lived. Of course there was the radio, but someone would have to sit on a specific station and wait for the station to decide to play the song. With the record, anyone could listen to an entire album by an artist as many times as they chose to, and from any place in the album. 

   By looking at the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, we can see what the innovation was. The early adopters would have to be the DJs who played the records.  The early majority would probably be everyone else who followed along and bought record to listen to at home while vinyl records exploded in popularity through the 1950s-1980s.  The introduction of the cassette tape and CD player did lead to a decline in the sale of vinyl, very heavily in the 1990s.

So many people likely became early adopters because it was new, it was revolutionary, it was the brand new and only way to listen to what you want where you want. For the most part there are no real downsides to the technology, and no real reason why someone would choose to not own vinyl, unless they did not like music or choice (at least in the 1950s). Today it would be expected that vinyl would be dead, as we now have on-demand music to stream whenever-absolutely-anywhere. However, vinyl has made a comeback, as earlier this year it outsold CDs for the first time since 1987. This may relate less to the diffusion theory in relation to vinyl records, however it could relate to those who have started to reject on-demand streaming and look for a more "pure" sound.