By Jose Alvarez |Staff Writer|

It is oldie-but-goodie time with the vinyl record crowd.

Vinyl records have been gaining popularity again in recent years, especially in the United Kingdom and the United States, with Official Vinyl Charts launching in the United Kingdom on officialcharts.com.

Currently standing on the vinyl albums chart for the first quarter of 2015 are artists such as Noel Gallagher’s

High Flying Birds, Led Zeppelin, and the Arctic Monkeys.

Bob Dylan and Pink Floyd also appear on the top ten vinyl albums list.

“Ballad of the Mighty I”, by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying, Birds is the number one vinyl single in the United Kingdom.

This is followed by “The Dying Light”, also by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds.

Considering that the sales doubled from 2012 to 2013, the sales almost doubled the following two years and is now beginning to look like a comeback.

The United States has seen a similar increase in sales figures.

Vinyl album sales have grown from one million units in 2007 to six million in 2014.

“I just got my record player a couple months back and I use it at least once a week, mainly on the weekends,” said student Elionai Guzman.

Marco Leguizamo, a former CSUSB student and now a music producer said, “this has got to be good for the hip hop community. More records means more sampling.”

“So I guess it’s out with the new and in with the old,” he added.

Leguizamo also said, “vinyl has a certain sound to it that you just can not get with a CD.”

According to Leguizamo, that sound is important when transferring the record onto an audio production program because it makes everything have a fuller sound.

After almost vanishing completely this seems to be coming out of nowhere.

Here in the United States, vinyl sales figures were not even published anymore.

Steve Sheldon, the owner of a record label, believes that vinyl records will last longer than CD’s.

Especially in times like these where not many people seem to be buying music it feels refreshing to know that there is a growing market for a music output.

This is a win-win for all of music in general.

More and more record companies are releasing vinyls. This is a great time for vinyl collectors as the vinyls will become more easily accessible since there will be more available in the market.

Neil Young, a singer and song writer, has his own thoughts on the comeback.

He believes that the vinyl comeback is nothing more than a fashion statement.

He thinks vinyls are popular only as a fad and that the thing we should actually be seeking is high quality recordings.

This might even be the start of a new era in music, where there is deeper and more meaningful appreciation for the art.