Instant access and portability fall at the heart of the music business in this digital era. But of course, the vinyl has staged a spectacular comeback over the last seven years, in the US, Europe and Thailand as well.
At the beginning, Khlong Thom Night Market and Saphan Lek were where vinyl heads converge to scour for old discs. Even though these two street markets have been previously busted -- Bangkok Metropolitian Administration's attempt to curb trading on footpaths -- collectors seeming have not had a hard time as there seems to be several shops still specialising in the retro format, both with used vinyls and newly-minted ones, not to mention another busy market at Pantip Ngamwongwan.
Ruttha Rungsang, who owns tens of thousands of vinyls, thinks that it's due to technology that this old-school music format has staged a resurgence.
"Technology is actually what brought back vintage and the good old stuff," said Ruttha, who's in his 40s and works as a freelancer in the music business. "The digital format is fast and easy. But it's intangible. People now want to turn back to originality. I'm not sure whether the new digital format of the music business has reached its saturation point or whether it's just a cycle of life where people always end up going back to the basics.
"I love how I can manually control the vinyl -- just put the needle right on the record then it plays the part you want right away."
This reason is different for Adisak Jaemjirasai, who's known in his circles, half-jokingly, as "The Vinyl Collector of Planet Earth" due to his vinyl library, which houses a collection in the realm of tens of thousands.
"It's the format that gives us the closest sound quality, sounding just like it would when played live," said Adisak. Now in his 60s, he started collecting vinyls earnestly after recovering from the great financial crisis in the late 1990s. He recalled how, when working as a carpenter in his 20s, music was always the one thing that made him happy.
These two collectors -- over 20 years apart in age -- used to frequent Khlong Thom and Saphan Lek, two great sources of all things old and seemingly useless, to hunt for used vinyls. Other collectors also relate their Saturday experiences of visiting vendors in Khlong Thom, a bustling, noisy and crowded roadside market that doubles as a treasure trove for those who know where to look.
Now that Khlong Thom has lost some of its Mecca status, Ruttha and Adisak, like many others, go to Vinyl Die Hards, a new trove in Sri Nagarindra Road. Even though the shop just opened at the end of last year, it is a reincarnation of PS Audio, for many years a popular store among hard-core vinyl fans.
Ruttha said he loves the feeling of digging into bunches of records and eventually discovering the good ones. When it was still called PS Audio, the shop only sold used vinyls.
Now that it has been renamed and expanded, its inventory still includes only Western music vinyls but Saipin Korbenjawan, the second-generation owner, has begun to sell both used and new vinyls, reissues as well as newly printed.
The price of used ones go from a few hundred to over 10,000, depending on their rarity (an Adele album is priced at 980 baht, for instance, while Abba Greatest Hits at 1,480, and The Beatles in Mono Box Set at 17,000 baht).
"Maroon 5 is popular, and Mariah Carey too, which is surprising," says Saipin. "It shows that there are both young and not-so-young collectors out there."
In the US, vinyl sales hit a million last year, the highest since 1996, according to many reports. The retro-mania in the UK has jumped as well, so much so that a new vinyl chart was launched this April.
In Thailand, the figures are not available, though it's likely that the number of collectors may be in the few hundreds.
Saipin says she has taken over her father's business, which has been open since the 1990s and invested in vinyls because she believed in its enduring charm and appeal.
"It's the best physical form of music with its size and visuals. Not only is the quality of sound tangible but also vinyls can be kept for a long period of time," said Saipin.
Recoroom Vinyl and Vintage Audio is another newly opened shop, though the owner, Chatchawal Suradej isn't a stranger to the field.
At first displaying extra vinyls he had in the CD shop he ran more than 10 years ago, he eventually found that vinyls could make even better sales than CDs.
He started to become a supplier, selecting used vinyls from Japan and supplying them wholesale to sellers in Pantip Plaza Ngamwongwan, another popular spot for old goods. Chatchawal later opened his own retail shop in Ekamai.
"I've realised that in the last 10 years, vinyls have become more popular and what I've selected to sell, mostly jazz, is what the market demands," says Chatchawal.
"The vinyls in our store are must-have items and I want Thais to have a chance to experience these ear candies."
Chatchawal says the rise of the vinyl business is a global phenomenon.
"I've found that some of the records I'd brought back from Japan are now rare. Some foreign customers also stop by at my shop and usually take something back with them."
Other than these standalone shops, Pantip Ngamwongwan is a vinyl treasure trove with about 10 vinyl stalls, selling mostly used ones.
Suwatt Sasiwanith, who runs one of the stalls, put his own collectibles for sale for four years. Now most of his customers are middle-aged men who often search for rare used vinyls. At the same time, he has noticed some new young faces in the field.
"Thai singers and bands have begun to launch their albums in vinyl format as business seems to grow fast, but I found the quality isn't as sharp as the old ones," said Suwatt.
Adisak also shared the same idea. He said one of the reasons could be because there are no longer vinyl production companies in Thailand.
"This might be because foreign factories don't understand Thai songs as much as Thais do, just like if a Thai cooks a Thai chilli sauce, it's likely to be better," said Adisak.
This return to the past is often questioned by the outsiders, who perhaps see it as just a nostalgic fad -- it just looks "cool" to own and listen to vinyls. Ruttha says that part of this could be true.
"There are people who want to do this according to the trends, but I always believe that appreciation come from the inside," he said.
"I can see that there are a lot of people who are really fascinated in vinyls, they're not just following the trend."
Chatchawal, from Recoroom Vinyl, says that now there are so many people doing business on vinyls, and that probably makes the supply higher than the demand.
"The good side of this is that the more vinyl sellers there are, the higher the chances of customers getting their hands on the good stuff."
Size, visuals and sound quality make vinyls worth collecting. The price of a rare vinyl could be raised to several thousands.
Vinyls have become popular for both the young and not-so-young collectors.
A vinyl stall in Pantip Plaza Ngamwongwan.
Recoroom Vinyl & Vintage Audio.
