Scorch came running into the dorm room. She had a thin box in her hands. She placed the box carefully on the table and called her friends. “Orak, Verum, Felix. Quick. Come here. I have something to show you!”
The Mysticals gathered around the table and curiously peered into the box. What could it be? Slowly, Scorch opened the box and removed the item. It was a large, black disc.
“What is it? This looks like a CD we use in laptops and computers,” Orak observed.
“It is a Vinyl record from a small village in Czech. The Czech Republic is a country in Europe. The company GZ Media (Gramofonové Závody) located in the small village of Loděnice is trying to bring vinyl records back,” Scorch announced.
“It’s very pretty,” said Felix, “but what does it do?”
“It plays music! Vinyl records are discs with little lines called grooves on them. It is placed on a gramophone (a device to play music). Gramophones have needles. This needle goes in between the little grooves when the vinyl records go round on the gramophone and the song plays!” Scorch explained.
“Wow, sounds magical!” Verum marveled.
“GZ Media makes 60% of the world’s vinyl records,” Orak read from his ‘The Book of Everything’.
Scorch nodded, “And they have been doing it continuously since 1951!
GZ Media faced many hurdles. The first hurdle was to survive in this digital where CDs and other digital media are used to store music. Then came Covid-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war. Due to these hurdles, the demand for vinyl records went down.
Despite all the hurdles, the company kept producing the vinyl records.”
“Kudos to them!” Verum cheered.
“But something nice happened too,” Scorch continued, “During the pandemic, the demand for vinyl records increased. Music lovers at home wanted to hold their favorite music records instead of listening to them online. They started collecting vinyl records again!”
“What to do with this vinyl record now?” Felix asked, scratching his ears.
Orak closed his eyes and summoned a gramophone with his magic. Scorch placed the record on the gramophone and pleasant music filled the room. The Mysticals sang and danced along to the song!