As the Record Spins: Materialising Connections

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the material nature of legacy technology makes its users passionately prefer it over its digital alternatives.

Design/methodology/approach
This ethnographic study uses data from 26 in-depth interviews with vinyl collectors, augmented with longitudinal participant–observation of vinyl collecting and music store events.

Findings
The findings reveal how the physicality of vinyl facilitates the passionate relationships (with music, the vinyl as performative object and other people) that make vinyl so significant in vinyl users’ lives.

Research limitations/implications
As this study examines a single research context (vinyl) from the perspective of participants from three developed, Anglophone nations, its key theoretical contributions should be examined in other technological contexts and other cultures.

Practical implications
The findings imply that miniturisation and automation have lower limits for some products, material attributes should be added to digitised products and that legacy technology products could be usually be reframed as tools of authentic self-expression.

Originality/value
This study explains what can happen beyond the top of the “S” curve in the Technology Acceptance Model, furthering our understanding of consumers’ reactions to the proliferation of digital technology in their lives.

Full paper available at https://doi.org/10.1108/EJM-12-2016-0828

Keywords: Music, Materiality, Connection, Legacy technology, Vinyl