Vinyl is way more popular than old cars.

It's pretty clear if you think it through a bit.

You can buy Pet Sounds, a classic album recorded in 1966, on vinyl:

- Distribution: you can buy it from Amazon, the same distribution channel as more modern media

- Price: for $18 (very small premium over digital media in absolute terms)

- Condition: in perfect, newly manufactured condition

- Substitutability: a functionally perfect substitute good for the artifact manufactured in 1966 (even available in original mono!)

- Supply: from a growing supply of records (record company always reissuing classics!)

- Maintenance: with the same maintenance requirements as an LP of a 2019 album

Consider the equivalent for a classic car, say a 1966 Corvette:

I want a 1966 Corvette. "Old Corvettes have a soul that new Corvettes lack, there's just some ineffable quality I prefer, y'know?", yadda yadda yadda

- Distribution: Can I walk into a Chevy dealership and buy a 1966 Corvette? Nope!

- Price: Can I buy a mint condition 1966 Corvette for substantially the same price as a 2019 Corvette? Nope! DDG says perfect 1966 Corvette value would be $82k, 2019 Corvette would be $55k and I suspect the difference would be even greater tbh. $30k+ price difference!

- Condition: Can I buy a newly manufactured 1966 Corvette at all? Nope!

- Substitutability: the 1966 Corvette is substantially different from the 2019 Corvette

- Supply: the number of well-maintained 1966 Corvettes is constrained. They aren't making any more!

- Maintenance: Entirely different beasts. No common parts.

So if I want a conversation piece in my living room, I can buy a $100 record player and spend $8 more for the LP

Well sure, if you’re just getting vinyl as conspicuous consumption, it’s a bad investment. I recommend against that. There are perfectly rational material reasons to prefer vinyl that don’t involve a midlife crisis or greenhouse gases. Anyone who spends $55k on a car clearly has very different values than most people.

What a weird thing to say. The analogy was vinyl : digital :: old cars : new cars. Obviously cars are way more expensive than music, so it doesn't make sense to directly compare their popularity in an absolute sense.

I understand that, but old cars are a hobby of a limited number of people, not of "Joe Average". This would be like old cars out-selling new ones.

The CD standard as the "Joe Average" is quickly changing. Anecdotally, as a younger person (recent college grad), people my age don't buy CDs out of necessity nearly as much anymore as they used to. We've gotten to the point where the vast majority of devices (car stereos, home systems, etc) have at the very least, an aux port. Adding on to this, the prevalence of phones as speakers and music players means that you hardly every "need" a CD. CDs are quickly going the way of records and cassettes.

We can see this pretty clearly looking at consumer reports[1], where you'll find that vinyls, compared to CDs, are actually being propped up largely by generations (18-44) that never properly experienced them. CD usage, on the other hand, is generally supported by older generations that are slower to adapt to modern streaming. Vinyl is almost vicarious nostalgia- most vinyl users I know (generally from the same age bracket) enjoy it as a deprecated technology that feels exotic. CDs aren't necessary for us anymore, and since we grew up with them, they aren't as enchanting and romanticized as vinyl.

[1] http://www.riaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/MusicWatch-Co...

In this analogy 'new cars' (CDs) have already largely been antiquated by the new technology of personal teleportation (audio files distributed over networks.)

The market for new cars still exists because some people don't like teleportation. Some people worry that teleportation recreates you imperfectly on the other side and thus prefer a new car. But that demographic is shrinking. Teleportation is simply so convienent that the overwhelming majority of consumers think the price worth paying.

"Some people worry that teleportation recreates you imperfectly on the other side"

Teleportation could recreate me perfectly, imperfectly, or better than perfectly - the issue is what happens to the original me. Rumor has it that after scanning your body the origin portal drops you into a trash compactor.

Digital recordings still vastly outsell vinyl; it’s just that CDs are declining in favor of MP3s and streaming, whilst demand for vinyl among enthusiasts/collectors holds up.

It would be like - in a world where everyone used Uber, public transport etc - 5 old cars outselling 3 new ones.