Record stores, DJs & venue owners say new generation is embracing vinyl | Mumbai News

For Razzak, the revival is most visible in the customers walking through his doors.  “A lot of young people are buying vinyl records now. They’ve grown up with CDs and online music, but many are looking for something more physical they can get their hands on.”

While vinyl’s revival is often framed as a generational shift, record store owners say the bigger change may be in what listeners are buying.

At Delhi Record Shop in Hauz Khas, owner Bachitter Singh says demand for electronic genres such as house, EDM and UK garage has grown significantly in recent years. “Traditionally, vinyl in India was associated with Bollywood, jazz and the music older generations grew up with,” says Singh. “We’re now seeing interest in a much wider range of genres.”

For 17-year-old collector Netra Sonchhatra, the journey began not with nostalgia but with one of the world’s biggest pop stars.

“I usually discover music through the suggested playlists on apps like Spotify,” she says. “If an artist announces a tour, I’ll also listen to their opening acts. That’s how I found the band Inhaler when they opened for Arctic Monkeys, and now I have one of their records on vinyl.”

For Sonchhatra, streaming and vinyl serve different purposes. “Streaming platforms famously don’t pay artists very much, especially smaller ones,” she says. “Vinyl is a completely different experience. You actually own the music, the records look beautiful, and there’s something fascinating about the technology behind them.”

Pramod Sipamihalani, partner at Pyramid Productions, and performer under the stage name Sindhi Curry,  has witnessed the shift through his vinyl-focused event series, Wax On Wax Off.

“Initially, it was about the novelty of seeing a vinyl DJ perform, but now they’re going deeper. They want to know about the artists, the history behind the music and where the records come from. I think we’re all suffering from digital overload. We’re constantly staring at screens. Vinyl offers something physical in a very digital world,” he says.

Comparing digital and vinyl Sipamihalani says, “It’s like the difference between reading a book and watching the movie adaptation,” he says. “Both tell the story, but one requires you to invest more of yourself in the experience.”