Despite technological advances and music becoming readily available by the click of a mouse, the old-fashioned vinyl records have survived and have even become a rising trend.
Surprisingly, the majority of vinyl customers are not those of older generations, but young adults and teenagers who instead grew up with the cassette tape and the CD.
At the Newtown Book and Record Exchange on State Street customers can trade, sell and purchase vinyl records.
“It’s ironic; older people are coming in to sell their old LPs while younger people are coming in to buy them the next day,” explained a sales associate at Newtown Book and Record Exchange.
Many students now find themselves digging through old boxes of records in their parents’ basement. 
According to Nielsen SoundScan, an audio sales tracker, vinyl record sales have reached their peak in 2011, being the highest in the decade and increasing dramatically since just last year.
So what is responsible for the sudden interest in vinyl? That’s a question that many people are still wondering. Perhaps this generation is beginning to see the advantages of vinyl records and turntables. 
Many music junkies have an enormous iTunes library, but still don’t feel like they necessarily “own” the music. Many young people have begun to look at vinyl records as a collection.
“You are not just getting the album tracks. You are getting the cover art, the big black disc, and any other features it may include. It’s a package deal,” said Ashley Furey, 18, a  music major from Warminster.
Granted, buying a vinyl album is also buying many additional features. For example, the vinyl LP of The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” includes a 24 page full color picture book, which is viewed as a collector’s item for many Beatles fans. 
Another LP quality that attracts many young customers is the enlarged cover art, as opposed to the little digital image on iTunes.
“You can see every detail of a vinyl’s cover art.  I had never even noticed the familiar faces on the cover of ‘Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band,’” Mishon Zyflek, 20, a liberal arts major from Warrington, said regarding The Beatles’ 1967 release.
As Zyflek stated, if you look closely at a vinyl cover of Sgt. Peppers, you will notice the familiar faces of Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Edgar Allen Poe, Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll and many others.
Kayla Heron, 19, a business major from Newtown, said that her favorite part of collecting vinyl records is browsing through them and choosing which ones to buy.
“You never know what albums you might stumble across at a record store,” she said.  Heron also noted that she loved the inexpensive nature of vinyl.
Terrance Bailey, 21, a marketing major from Fairless Hills, said his favorite quality of vinyl is the sound quality.
“If an album was originally recorded onto an LP, it will sound at its best that way forever,” Bailey stated. 
Many students favor the natural, analog sound of vinyl as opposed to the compressed sound of digital music.
It is not only classic albums that can be found on vinyl, but new albums can be purchased as well. Many new album releases can be found on vinyl in a section of your local record shop or on the internet, such as the Barnes and Noble’s website, which contains a selection of over 12,500 records.
Vinyl is anything but dead and can only be expected to increase within the years to come.