Vinyl Records Rule

A hobby I have picked up in the past year has been collecting vinyl records. Doing so has been a lot of fun and it has helped me appreciate my favorite music even more. There's nothing like going to a vinyl shop and thumbing through countless numbers of old records, hoping to come across that vintage copy of "Dark Side of the Moon" or whatever else catches your eye.

It really excites me that vinyl is coming back in a big way. I recently read in Rolling Stone that vinyl record sales are up something like 400 percent in the past couple of years. More and more bands are starting to issue their releases not only online and on CD, but on vinyl as well.

A few bands, like Metallica for example, are even going back into their back catalog and re-releasing material onto the once-obsolete format.

Looking for and listening to a record is a much more intimate experience than going online and buying your music off of iTunes. With vinyl, you get the artwork of the packaging and whatever goodies that may lie inside. My copy of "Carnavas" by Silversun Pickups came with a little bonus EP inside of unreleased tracks — how neat is that?

I've had other records come with posters or even trading cards.

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