How the vinyl record was saved
The CD almost killed off the vinyl record, and yet sales of vinyl now generate the significantly greater revenue. This study examines how the once declining practice of vinyl record manufacturing was preserved, and how custodianship can be key to keeping other ailing practices alive.
This research draws on a global, longitudinal case study of the vinyl record manufacturing practice following a global decline in sales, and examines the work undertaken to preserve it. The manufacture of records experienced significant decline worldwide following the success of the audio cassette and digital compact disc (CD) in the eighties and nineties. While never completely abandoned, and enjoying a renaissance in recent years, for a period of time vinyl record manufacturing was in danger of dying out, due to a substantial drop in supplies of specialised tools and services.
The researchers develop a process model comprising custodianship processes that sustain a practice which has experienced substantial decline. It identifies two types of custodians – legacy professionals (i.e., members of a generation that had a relationship with the practice before decline and continued to depend on it for financial income) and new enthusiasts (i.e., members of a newer generation that developed a relationship with the practice after decline had begun, primarily for non-economic reasons).
Both custodian groups perform key preservation activities.
Legacy professionals continue to enact and support the practice – thus maintaining some of its existing meanings, materials, and competences. They may also diversify the practice by creating new configurations of meanings, materials, and competences, which establish new variants of the practice.
New enthusiasts can also diversify the practice, as well as engage in recovering (ensuring abandoned remnants are reusable), replenishing (increasing the available stock of materials required for practice enactment) and releasing (helping others acquire relevant materials and competences) efforts.
The process model of practice preservation highlights that a declining practice may persist across generations if it is made more accessible and resilient, by reducing its dependence on specific types of meanings, materials and competences that risk being lost.
In addition to developing a rich understanding of preservation, the findings contribute to a nuanced perspective on practice evolution by conceptualising a practice as comprising multiple, potentially fluid variants. Moreover, by highlighting inclusive custodianship processes, which differ from gatekeeping and guarding, and by unpacking the role of materials to complement the traditional emphasis on symbolic elements, the paper's findings enrich the nascent custodianship literature.
The paper Custodianship across Generations: Preserving the Practice of Vinyl Record Manufacturing can be downloaded at City Research Online. It is published at Academy of Management Journal.
