Vinyl. Impossible to spell. As a matter of fact, even spelling bee winners cringe at the thought of the word, but it's not just hard to spell, it's hard to kill.

There's been dozens of music delivery formats put out there - 78's and 45's and reel to reel and 8 track, cassettes and MD discs, CD's and MP3's... plus a whole mess of other attempts to get us to buy music. Did you know that Miles Davis's 'Kind of Blue' has been released in every single delivery format that has ever been pushed onto the public? Every single one. Better 'Kind of Blue' I guess than The Archies, but still...

Vinyl - hard to kill. Especially in this resurgence of collecting records. I see posts everyday, lots of them featuring an old (or new turntable) and a spinning disc and an album cover of some obscure bit of recorded history. Sure, I subscribe to a couple of pages where you'd expect to see posts like that, Vintage Audio and some Hi -Fi pages... but it happens all day long on Facebook too.

You know what I think is neat about that? I think it's neat that all these young collectors are discovering a whole 'new to them' treasure trove of music. I've seen odd old Mike Bloomfield records and funny, obscure Bobby Vinton and Zappa and Cream and disco. I think that's great. Music lovers discovering music. Sure you can find tons on the net. Tons and tons and tons on the net. Endless varieties and styles and genres. You can find traditional music and secular music and Jazz and folk and blues and EDM and on and on and on... Want something from that little three recording label based in Berlin – it's available on the net! Everything Montovani ever recorded? Easy, it's on the net. Patsy, or Dolly or Roy or Elvis? Done, done, and done.

But there's something else going on with young collectors of vinyl that simply cannot be ignored, and that is the diversity of what they're collecting. Show-tunes show up as 'gems found in a basement' and lost Jimmy Buffet albums re-appear and are raved about, there's rough stuff and pop stuff and late night stuff and great stuff and sad stuff. Tons of stuff and it's mostly way outside the confines of 'Just the Hits'. The depth and breadth of what seems to be making it into collections is as vast as the format has available and I think that's swell! It's not just the hits of 1977 or 1961, it's the strange and obscure, the out of the ordinary and the magical. And it's all finding it's way into the hearts and minds and lives of a whole new generation of listeners.

At first I thought it was just going to be a fad, a passing parade and that vinyl would lose it's way within a summer of small attention, but I was wrong. Sales continue to rise, admittedly not at streaming music levels, but sales do continue to rise. That on it's own is something of a statement. Turntables are becoming more and more valuable – some reaching two, even three times their original retail price! There's the whole record care side of things, the brushes and cloths and sprays and spindle weights. There's protective sleeves and slip covers, mats and anti static guns! All this stuff is getting serious attention.

And I know why.

I know because I've lived it, seen it, felt it, smelt it. Want me to share with you? What it is that's so special about vinyl? It's not the vinyl. Well, not directly. It's what it represents – it's a personal collection of music that required effort and persistence and dedication to amass through a process that, in the end, means something to someone. Because no one ever asks to flip through your MP3 collection.