After the vinyl prosperity of the seventies, sales fell to a decline with the rise of CD’s but as of 2022 vinyls have officially bypassed CD’s in sales. There are many reasons vinyl has become more popular in the last decade including nostalgia, trends and aesthetics.

With the increasing popularity of vinyls in terms of aesthetics, companies like Crosley Radio are also producing record players to match. They can now be found in endless colors and textures, a straying theme from the wooded days of the 1900s. Along with color variety, there is also price variety ranging from 70 dollars to thousands for a whole record sound system. The Crosley website and other websites alike make it very easy to find exactly what record player a consumer may be looking for with sections for newbies, entertainers, audiophiles, etc.

There is one thing hugely responsible for the return of vinyl: color. Though colored vinyl has been around for decades, it was a rarity, but now it is expected that there will be both a traditional and colored version of an album when its released. Some artists keep the colored vinyl close to the price of the original, while others make major profits by marketing colored vinyls as limited editions, causing major upcharge. Though most artists have cashed in on the rise of colored vinyls no artist has done it to the level of global superstar Taylor Swift. It   was reported that for her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) release at least five different colored vinyls were available on her website, each going for 30-40 dollars. Though colored vinyls are very enticing, they only contribute to the profit of the top and increase mass consumerism. Another tactic used by Swift’s merchandise team was marketing four different colored Midnights vinyls as a set which made a full clock. Nothing about each individual vinyl was different except the color and covers and yet thousands of fans purchased each edition. This mass consumerism is in no way sustainable as it contributes to emissions and staggering trash levels. Ond posters as well.

It is also reported tn the other hand, Billie Eilish aims to limit the trash produced by much of vinyl production by using recycled plastic. All of Eilish’s vinyls are made out of 100% recycled plastic, both colored and traditional vinyls. The artist further strives for sustainability as she continues the use of recycled materials in her packaging, ranging from 93-100% recycled materials all of which are reusable or recyclable. The use of BioVinyl helps reduce emissions by 90%  which helps reduce the use of nonrenewable fuel materials for vinyl production. Eilish continues her sustainability efforts in both her cassette tapes ahat since 2015 cassette sales have increased 440% with artists including Swift, Eilish, and Harry Styles releasing cassettes as another form of physical music, accompanying vinyls and CDs. The use of colored materials continues to be used in cassettes, but on a much smaller scale to vinyls as not many cassette producers still exist in the United States.