Vinyl, by Dominik Bartmanski and Ian Woodward, is subtitled The Analogue Record in the Digital Age. The book is more than this, however. As well as looking at the vinyl record's relationship with digital technologies, it also tells the history of the format. The aim of the book's first chapter is to offer a ‘historical background of vinyl's cultural biography’ (p. xxi). This is nevertheless one of the weaker aspects of the book. The authors have only a loose grasp of the format's development and although they claim to have surveyed ‘the extant literature on the topic’ there is little evidence of their doing this (p. xv). From the technical point of view there is no Gelatt (Reference Gelatt1977) or Read and Welch (Reference Read and Welch1976). Moreover, despite the book's focus on theory, there is no mention of some of the key thinkers on the subject. Kittler (Reference Kittler, Winthrop-Young and Wutz1999) and Eisenberg (Reference Eisenberg2005) are both missing, for example. The authors do admit, however, that the format's history is not their ‘primary interest’ (p. xxi).

As well as being wider than its subtitle would suggest, the book is also narrower. One notable aspect of vinyl's digital afterlife is how long it has lasted. In fact, this phase of its existence has now surpassed its reign as the ‘king format’ (p. 1). In Britain, for example, vinyl was the leading recording format, sales-wise, for 27 years. It surpassed shellac records in 1958 and was overtaken by the cassette in 1985. This book has been published 30 years after this initial eclipse. There is plenty to be written about vinyl's digital experience in these three decades, examining the format's relationship with digital recording, the CD, the download and now the digital stream. Bartmanski and Woodward's focus is nevertheless restricted to the resurgence of vinyl over the past five years. As such, they fall prey to the belief that it is only now that vinyl is being revived: ‘few cared at all about the hastily abandoned vinyl until sales numbers ‘proved’ that it can be ‘successful’ and when the hip showed that it is, well, hip’ (p. 4, emphasis in original). There have nevertheless been a number of vinyl revivals throughout this 30-year period and the format has continually received media attention disproportionate to its sales performance. Furthermore, not only are they focused on the present phase of digital technology, but they also believe that this phase will be the future. They state, ‘vinyl saw a socially broader renaissance exactly at the time when the digital revolution seemed complete’ (p. 166). Surely, however, the dust of the digital upheaval has not settled yet.

There are also oddities about the book's methodology. The current vinyl revival has been rooted in sales of LP records, at least according to official figures. Here, the main genre being sold is rock music, whether via reissues of the classic albums of vinyl's ‘golden age’ (p. 147) or the releases of artists who hark back to this era. Despite this generic bias, the authors' primary means of exploring this vinyl revival is to interview composers and DJs working in Berlin's electronic music scene. Although these practitioners are excellent at discussing the mystique of vinyl, they are not particularly well placed to analyse the rock market. In addition, they are focused primarily on the 12” single. This points to another lacuna within the book's framework. One of the key aspects to vinyl's appeal is that it has formats within formats: the 7” single, EP, 12” single and LP. These each look and operate in different ways. They also appeal to different markets and genres. However, despite their ambition to explore ‘the range of materially mediated cultural meanings' that adhere to vinyl (p. xxi), Bartmanski and Woodward have little to say about how these sub-formats have been articulated. This neglect is representative of a broader need to present the vinyl record as a monolithic thing. The authors' premise is to account for vinyl's popularity in the ‘very properties of the medium itself and the experiences it affords' (p. 36). To do this they have to represent it as unchanging. They state that ‘Berliner's basic idea has remained unaltered’ (p. 70) and that the analogue record has ‘never changed’ since the introduction of vinyl in the 1940s (p. 70). This is simply not the case: the format has been refined and adapted.

Despite its flaws, the book has much to recommend it. The authors have a fine grasp of the complex and overlapping issues that are involved in establishing vinyl's status as a ‘special object’ (p. 162). Moreover, they have come up with a good chapter plan for exploring these facets. After Chapter 1's analysis of the format's history, Chapter 2 focuses on the way that vinyl functions as a medium, Chapter 3 looks at the production of vinyl, Chapter 4 addresses the ways in which consumers experience vinyl as a commodity, while Chapter 5 looks at the locations in which vinyl is ‘sold, traded and played’ (p. 137). This diverse exploration enables the authors to conclude sensibly that there are multiple causes for vinyl's current popularity: it is ‘not about any one narrative or sentiment, be it nostalgic retromania or hipsterish snobbery’ (p. 98).

In addition, the concentration on Berlin vinyl fanatics does bear fruit. In particular, there are some fascinating insights into vinyl production. That said, these practitioners do get carried away when trying to establish vinyl's ‘self-reliant, anti-systemic and counter-cultural meanings' (p. 149). Peter Runge, for example, states, ‘If you play vinyl, government people do not know that you do it … as long as you don't pay for records with a credit card’ (p. 151). The analysis of the current state of vinyl retail is also interesting, with a particularly good probing of the ‘lifestyle and boutique’ shop phenomenon (p. 142).

Finally, despite my gripes with the authors' definition of the digital age, the focus on the here and now of the vinyl phenomenon is highly valuable. It has resulted in a fascinating analysis of the format's ‘meaningful circulation’ (p. 170). Moreover, while Bartmanski and Woodward admit that ‘It goes without saying that more work could be done on any of the topics we treat in this book’ (p. 170), it is the case that any future scholars should bear in mind the methodology and the results of the approach they have adopted here.