Meet India’s growing community of vinylheads, who are leading the revival of a vintage audio culture

Experience the warmth of analogue music through vinyl records curated by passionate collectors in India.

As Sujit G Ponoth drops the needle on the record, Amy Winehouse’s deliciously deep voice pervades the room. She sings ‘Rehab’ from her final and autobiographical album Back to Black and Sujit asks: “Hear the difference?” Amy Winehouse on vinyl sounds markedly different, I agree, more intimate and warm. “This is how authentic vinyl sounds,” he says. 

Sujit wants everyone to experience the joy and warmth of analogue music, the traditional way of recording music on physical formats such as vinyl records, and cassettes. “For a generation that is used to streaming music for free, this could be a revelation,” he says.

Sujit, who grew up listening to records his grandfather and mother used to play, converted his childhood home at Kaloor in Kochi into a record store, JD’s Jukebox, where he has curated a collection of over 5,000 records spanning 24 genres including progressive rock, metal, soul, and alternative, among others. He started collecting 10 years ago, crate-digging in obscure places in India and abroad; but it was when COVID struck that he catalogued and shared his collection on social media. “People started asking me if they could buy the records and I found that there was a burgeoning market for vinyl.”

The cosy space is for anyone who wants to listen to music, buy it or simply talk about it. Sujit is part of a growing tribe of vinylheads in India, who are preserving the analogue experience. It is a sort of conscious slowing down, they say. The analogue format records sound as continuous waveforms and it is not immune to ambient sounds. This makes the music seem organic.

For most vinylheads, it is this vulnerability that makes the romance with vinyl real. Founder of record store, Kinjal Gosar from Mumbai, recounts her experience listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon at a vinyl listening session her friend took her to in Mumbai in 2017. “I knew the album inside out. But that day, on vinyl, I could hear things I had never heard before,” she says. 

There was no looking back since for Kinjal, who started collecting records and invested in a player and speakers before launching her online store, Drocer Records in 2022. Drocer now hosts events in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune, selling records, turntables and more. “We have tied up with Mumbai-based music school Adagio to host vinyl nights every Thursday,” adds Kinjal. 

In the past decade, retro musical formats have made a comeback globally with vinyl taking the lead. Reports indicate that the market is set to see a spike between 2023 and 2028. In 2023, Taylor Swift became the first best selling artiste on vinyl, with one of every 15 vinyl albums sold in the US being hers. Things may not be as swift in India, but it is growing. Though there are no pressing plants in India, new releases are being pressed abroad. The collectors are predominantly millennials, but Gen Z is hooked too.