The Ultimate Audiophile Elixir is Not Streaming, Vinyl or Unlimited Access to Music

Fresh back from our event at Harvard University where we (along with our clients/partners) donated a $150,000 audiophile system to the Shelemay Audio Lab in their music school, we have had a good chance to check in with the Generation Y audience on their feelings about music playback and audiophile systems. These wonderful kids are the embodiment of the FutureAudiophile.com mission statement. They are smart enough to get into Harvard (by the way: who let a bunch of fancy stereo salesmen on the Harvard campus and what were they thinking?) and truly love music. They live in a world where technology is king and melodies haunt their reverie – to quote Roy Litchenstein in one of his most famous, cartoon-like fine art prints. 

Is Vinyl the Answer with the Next Generation of Audiophiles? 

There is no question that Generation Z and their older Millennial brethren love themselves some vinyl. They appreciate the authenticity of the historically important legacy format. Listening to music in the format it was originally released is a big perk for younger audiophiles. Listening to an entire side of an album without any kind of shuffle is quite appealing. Liner notes and cover art are appealing, too. The audiophile youth movement loves the analog and simple nature of the format, which appeals to this Generation X audiophile, too. 

There was a hard to believe story about how younger music enthusiasts own vinyl but, in nearly half the cases, these tech-savvy folk don’t have a turntable to play their LPs. Stick that in your Salesforce, because that is a pure opportunity, people. 

How Do Headphones Factor In to Today’s Young Audiophiles?

We all learned that headphones are an essential part of everyday life for today’s aspiring young audiophiles. Digging deeper, these young men and women (and YES there are women – plenty of them – believe it or not) use headphones in every element of their waking hours. Zoom calls. Walking around campus. Studying in dorm rooms. At the gym. Headphones are a routine element of existence for our next generation of audiophiles.

Like fashion, headphones make a statement about you, and not everybody wants to look like a follower. This is where audiophile headphones really become relevant. Luxurious materials, designer colors and unique industrial design make Apple an ultra-popular brand, but sometimes a little too mainstream. The audiophile world delivers on the aforementioned standards, but with elevated audio performance, and that is worth a little bit of extra investment, even for those in college who need to manage a very tight budget. I think we all would eat a few more packets of Ramen noodles in order to have some Bowers & Wilkins headphones grace our skulls. 

The one point that I tried to make to the students in attendance was that a pair of affordable headphones is a perfectly acceptable place to begin as an audiophile. A few hundred bucks in this category is a viable and respectable start in our hobby. There are those in the older audiophile establishment who think that if an audiophile product isn’t really expensive, then it can’t possibly be any good. Those snobs can go pound sand. For example: a $99 pair of Monoprice headphones is the origin point of an audiophile journey, especially for a young person. Same goes for say a Schiit, iFi, Queststyle, Fosi, Garard or S.M.S.L. – the list is long. Snobbery has no place in the audiophile hobby in this critical era.

Streaming is a Game-Changer But is It THE Game-Changer for Youth?

Qobuz generously printed up and handed out over 250 two-month free subscriptions for our event. Spotify is the go-to streaming service for most of these college kids, but the industry leader in streaming made a major public relations boo-boo recently when they took money from ICE. Here comes the cancel culture … Younger audiophiles also like fair business models, and models like Spotify pay the top 125 artists dearly where tens of thousands of other musicians and bands don’t do nearly as well. The youth at Harvard liked the business model and ethical compass of Qobuz. We all do. 

Every young audiophile streams their music. All of them. Some are on Apple Music. Others are rocking Amazon Music. Spotify is the most popular, but there are other options. However, you won’t see a kid walking through Harvard Yard without some form of streaming on their phone/tablet/laptop. You just won’t, but the crazy part is that, even with unlimited access to Compact Disc quality (and often much higher resolutions), streaming just isn’t the magic bullet that older audiophiles might expect. If you’ve never spent every penny of your car-washing or lawn-mowing money on 45s, LPs or CDs at, say, Tower Records, then unlimited access to music is just something that you take for granted. To younger audiophiles, it feels like HD streaming has always been there. It hasn’t, but they feel like it has. 

So, What Is the Real Motivator for Today’s Audiophiles? 

This is the most unwavering concept in the world of young audiophiles – VALUE, VALUE, VALUE is king! Even as younger enthusiasts start their careers and begin making a little bit of money, they are realistic about how “little bit” of money that they have and they don’t spend it like madmen. A lot of ink has been given to Millennials and their love of experiences, and that is true. Here in Los Angeles, they line up to by $26 juice at trendy grocery store Erewhon (I lived right above the original store and thought there were not gourmet enough and silly when in the 1990s I would bump into grunge icons like Courtney Love post-Sunset Strip binges the night before), but that is an indulgence. Places like Trader Joe’s are a better example of how younger people see value. They want curated products to buy that are differentiated, tasty, and healthy, but not batshit-crazy expensive. The audiophile world can deliver on that promise if we can get some exposure with these younger music-loving buyers. We’ve got value but, more importantly, we sell an experience that isn’t gone like a return airplane ticket after seeing Tay-Tay in Paris. 

Your stereo system is an asset that provides an exciting nightly musical experience. This is our superpower, as we can deliver on both fronts that speak to younger aspiring audiophiles. You don’t need to own a $5,000 audio system to be an audiophile. There is no hard-and-fast rule like that. You just need to appreciate something that is a little differentiated and a little bit more high-performance, and that is what today’s young music lovers are telling us. 

Health Benefits Were an Unexpected Perk

In my presentation to the students at Harvard, they didn’t have much awareness of the health benefits of listening to music, but they did know that stress and anxiety is a major topic for their generation. My father (same name, I am the one with more gray hair, however) is a professor in the Music Industry program at NYU and his most popular course is Stress and Anxiety in the Music Industry. It is sold out and badly needed.

A point that I tried to hammer home was that 15 minutes of listening to some chill Miles Davis or Pink Floyd or Andres Segovia on even a most modest music playback system can lower your blood pressure by 10 blips on the diastolic (the bottom number) in no time. Anxiety, something that I had never experienced until the divorce that I am going through now, also can be managed without prescription drugs through music often inspired, ironically, with illicit drugs thanks to the magical power of listening to music. Stress is everywhere in our lives. Technology makes us more productive, but does it make us happier? That’s the topic of a story that Paul Wilson is working on now. Music relieves stress. Music played back on even a modest audiophile system is a secret weapon to deal with an overly complicated world filled with too much war, hate and ugliness. 

Final Thoughts on Value for Young Audiophiles …

The problem with finding new audiophiles is one of awareness, not willingness. When you can deliver on “the feels” (translate that to goosebumps) from music, you’ve closed the philosophical sale. The question is how to get better exposure to these young people for what we do at a price that they can actually afford. $100,000 titanium stand-mounted bookshelf speakers are great for advanced and well-heeled audiophiles, but with a system built roughly around a pair of Paradigms plus a stack of under-$200-per-component Fosi gear with, say, a U-Turn Orbit turntable, you have a much more relevant system that can be a life-changing outcome for a young music enthusiast. 

Aspiring young audiophiles will quickly learn to love the rituals of vinyl. They will stream music with a facility that older audiophiles can’t even dream of. Most importantly, issues of health, well-being and happiness are on the table in ways “that shrink in Beverly Hills, you know the one, Dr. Everything’ll-Be-Alright, instead of asking him how much of your time is left, ask him how much of your mind, baby” can’t easily solve with a happy pill. 

The really good news is that we got this as an industry. We got this as a hobby. We just need to get the word out about the power of music and audio, and that is something that I’m dedicating much of my career to now. I invite you to find ways to do the same by helping us get more exposure on how audio and music can make one’s life better, happier and healthier. 

For you, what is the most important part of the audiophile hobby?