There are a number of benefits of working from home – being closer to family when urgent needs arise, the commute is basically the stairwell to the office and an entire refrigerator of snacks available at a moment’s notice.

Yet, with all of this, one of my favorite benefits of working from home is having my turntable a mere arm’s reach away.

I’ve rediscovered my love of listening to music on vinyl. For years I’ve moved hundreds of records from house to apartment to house with every move. I would pull out a record here or there occasionally when the music wasn’t available on Spotify, but mostly I just kept them around for sentimental reasons.

Now that I’m at the home office, I find it enjoyable to pull out a record, put it on the turntable, clean off any excess dust and drop the needle. It’s a more active way of listening to music. It requires more effort than just having whatever is on my digital playlist blending into the background. I have a friend who says that the crackles and pops make the music feel more human, and I just might agree with him to a certain extent (I do still try to get rid of all of the dust though!)

So, what do I listen to? I’m all over the map – jazz, punk, rock, metal, indie, etc. Here’s a few of my current favorites.

I’ve even started buying a few new records these days – yes, they are still making them, and they are selling quite well I hear. I love that many of them come standard with a gate-fold cover. That’s one thing that I definitely missed with the transition to CDs. They also are taking better advantage of the colored vinyl options available. No longer is it just boring old black everywhere. That’s a fun trend.

For the collector in me, there is also a fun application & site called Discogs that allows you to catalog your entire collection. It’s super easy with the app if your records have bar codes. Just scan those little bars and it pulls up your disc. You can even buy and sell records through their site, for which it will handily give you an estimate of what your collection is worth. For me that’s just a side note as mostly I’m here to listen, not invest.

Want to talk about records? Shoot me a note below, or feel free to tweet me @jimkidwell!