It's Record Store Day 2022 tomorrow and, in a (hopefully) post-pandemic world, bricks-and-mortar record stores can finally be enjoyed once more. After all, the surge in demand for vinyl and turntables shows no sign of waning. Lockdown saw many of us drawn back to the comfort of our tangible vinyl stash, while others used the time to begin starting their own record collections, gathering up albums from their favourite artists using online retailers or vinyl subscription services.
Think you know what people were (and still are) desperately trying to snap up? It's easy to look up the best-selling albums on vinyl, but far harder to quantify the most-wanted, right? Well, a UK-based price comparison website claims to have cracked it.
Interested in finding the most popular vinyl albums and artists of all time, money.co.uk web-scraped Discogs' music database to find the 100 most-owned vinyl albums. Then, it established a popularity score for each album based on the number of people who own the album and those who want it. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that the data came back to form a list of the most sought-after vinyl albums of all time. Think you can guess them? Click 'Play' on the quiz below this text...
(Hint: two Pink Floyd albums are actually repeated lower down the list because of the different formats available, so guess these two albums and you've already got four answers – result!)
Although vinyl's remarkable resurgence continues apace, diving into the world of turntables and rare vinyl can sometimes feel like an expensive hobby.
But it doesn't have to be. Purchasing vinyl second-hand from record shops, car boot sales and even charity shops can be great fun if you know what to look for. Visiting a record store in person also means you can actually talk to a human being and physically check the condition of your potential purchase too, rather than relying on online descriptions and photos.
Remember, finding second-hand vinyl in pristine condition is unlikely, but it's perfectly acceptable to check the surface of the record for scratches or indentations and the sleeve for damage, so long as you are considerate and careful. If visiting a store, you should also be able to ask to play a second-hand record first, before purchasing – after all, it's one of the most important tips for buying second-hand records that we can offer.
So happy shopping, happy Record Store Day and happy quizzing, vinyl fans!
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