The revival of physical media in the music industry: nostalgia, aesthetic, or overconsumption?

artwork by Laetitia Dewachter

Magda Kanecka I September 2025

CDs, vinyl records, cassettes – you name it, you are likely to access it within the distance of your closest record store. 

Although Spotify and Apple Music, among other streaming platforms, are now the most popular ways of accessing music, there is something satisfying about being able to hold a physical piece of music in your hands and listen to it from start to finish, from side A to side B, C, or D.

Vinyl records in LP format were first distributed in 1948 via Columbia Records, with traditional cassettes following suit in 1963. While owning a collection of records or cassettes was first seen as a cultural staple – a means of establishing a higher status, perhaps – the sales of physical media forms fell around the early 2000s, as technology began to develop and popularised internet platforms led to developments in streaming services.

This development rapidly made music accessible to more people – a monthly Spotify Premium subscription currently peaks at around £11.99 (EUR 12.99) and includes ad-free, unlimited listens to as many artists as you like, plus the ability to download your playlists to listen offline. This price is even cheaper for students upon verification – and all of this is condensed conveniently within your phone.

This would not have been possible, given the budget and access, to achieve with traditional physical media. The average price of a vinyl record is currently £26 (~EUR 30), and the average price of a good quality vinyl player is just under £500 (~EUR 577). The evidence here concludes that not everyone can afford vinyl – and with the development of streaming services around the 2000s, it has become simpler, cheaper, and quicker to access music online.

In comparison to the profit made for the artist, however, Spotify pays out between $0.003 to $0.005 per stream – significantly less than the price of a cassette or a vinyl record. This can help to explain why, though notably more convenient, online streaming services fall short in their real ‘giving back’ impact from fans to artists.

However, over the past decade, the popularity of vinyl records and cassettes has resurged, with artists from across the industry releasing multiple variants of each of their albums to drive up sales and to allow fans to collect the releases, all the while boosting the revenue of the music industry.

For example, in 2024, pop singer Taylor Swift released over 30 album variants of her top-charting album “The Tortured Poets Department”, and whereas to die-hard fans, this became a fun way of collecting Swift’s physical albums – inevitably contributing to the revival of physical media while also making the album stay on top of the charts for months – many have since questioned the consumerist patterns of the fandom, and of the industry as a whole.

A Reddit post on the r/music community questioned why this may be the case, and how people feel about it. A fan has stated: “I used to love bringing home a new vinyl record. Dropping the needle on the first song and instantly hearing a faint crackle. […] I’m glad that vinyl is back.” Many others further describe feelings of nostalgia, the appeal of ‘owning’ the music you enjoy, and even some users claiming that their favourite music simply sounds better in their physical equivalents.

In the case of cassettes, a desire for analogue sound is often blended with the fact that cassettes are still fairly cheap to produce. With almost 400 cassettes being sold per day in the UK in 2023, it is impossible to deny their rising popularity. An anonymous writer further described: “I grew up listening to cassettes so now I like to buy them – they’re usually pretty cheap second hand.”

Whereas CDs never completely disappeared and did not decline in their popularity nearly as much as the two other music collectables described above, younger generations now describe further feelings of nostalgia, describing that many of us used to collect CDs when we were younger (in fairness, this includes me), and seeking to re-enter that era. A writer further describes: “I still have the CD player I listened to nursery rhyme cassettes on as a toddler, then emo CDs as a teen, and now I am slowly building my CD and cassette collection.”

An anonymous journo request poll conducted by BruitMag. further reinforced the range of opinions regarding the resurgence of physical media. One writer tells us: “I find it less stressful to listen to CDs in my car because Spotify has an overwhelming number of options” – another stating that “I think, if nothing else, it is a rallying cry against the enshittification and the endless rental model where you never own anything.”

Multiple contributors have described their appreciation for the ability to hold a piece of media they love in their hands, as well as the ability to sit through an entire album, which makes them connect with the music more. Nostalgia played a big factor in the longer, more elaborate responses. Several others referenced “seeing the music in a way that the artist visualises through the album artwork” or simply “encouraging more creative album art.”

Whether you view owning physical media as a status symbol, a fun way of supporting artists, or as collectables, chances are, many of us will agree that taking the Taylor Swift route and releasing over 30 editions of the same album can be seen as excessive. In hindsight, the statistics don’t lie – vinyl, cassettes, and CDs are on the rise again, often blurring the lines between different music sub-genres. On this, an anonymous K-pop fan tells BruitMag.: “I’m into K-pop and buying physical albums is a huge thing in the industry.”

Finding a balance between not contributing to consumerist trends while also satisfying the feeling of owning our favourite artists’ music can be an excellent way of enjoying it, if your budget allows for it. This is not to defund streaming services, of course – I personally choose to collect my favourite albums in their physical forms, and the rest, I keep on my Spotify. 

I view physical media as an excellent way of supporting an artist I love. My opinion seems to be shared among readers, with one stating: “It’s refreshing to be able to support an artist directly, rather than [through] a streaming service,” and another one naming physical media “one of the best ways to listen to music.”

Whether you agree that the sound of physical media is better – as many people claim with vinyl records – whether you view it as an investment, or if you choose to stick to your phone for your musical fix, it manifests with no doubt that the range of choices and options for how to make music adaptable for all, adopting different hobbies and means of streaming it, will only continue to improve the music industry as a whole. For now, the choice is yours – so take your pick, and get listening!