“Analogue is SO back.” I hear this everywhere. Whether it’s at work, online or at dinner with my friends. Everyone’s bashing the digital world and raving about the greatness of everything analogue. And to be fair, I am part of that rave.
A few years ago, my biggest dream was to own my very own record player. So, there I was, scratching together my last coins to save up for the one I desperately needed. After months of daydreaming, the day finally came. Absolute perfection: dark green, wrapped in velvet fabric and finished with golden details. Guess what has been standing in my childhood home for years, slowly collecting dust as we speak? Yep, that record player.
For a few weeks I loved the ritual of looking through my vinyl collection, choosing an album, putting it on the turntable and simply sitting back to listen. But pretty quickly I went back to opening that black and green app on my phone. I unlock my screen, tap once, and within seconds I have every genre I could possibly be in the mood for. My vinyl collection, however… could definitely use a few additions.
Photography by Ruby Stein.
What other forms of analogue do I have at home? Magazines, of course. Not just because I work for one, but because I think none of us can deny how good they look lying on a living room table. Whenever I see a nice magazine, I immediately feel the need to buy it. But if I actually want to find out about a specific topic, I’m not going to search for a magazine that might answer my question. I’ll go online and have an answer within seconds.
And why is it that I buy a new disposable camera on every trip I go on? Those pictures are cute and fit that candid, “I’m not noticing you taking this picture” vibe. And there’s something so romantic about not knowing what they’ll look like until a few weeks later. But let’s be honest, one picture on my disposable camera usually means fifty on my phone. We’re not actually giving up our phones. And for some reason, those disposable camera pictures never even seem to make it onto my Instagram feed.
So maybe, before deciding whether the world is turning analogue again, we should ask ourselves why we suddenly feel so drawn to everything offline. I think it comes down to nostalgia and the urge to slow down. We live in such a fast-paced world that taking out a disposable camera to take a few pictures almost makes time stand still. Looking through a magazine feels calming. And those first few seconds when a vinyl starts spinning and you hear that little scratchy sound feel almost meditative.
But is that enough to say analogue is actually making a comeback? It certainly feels that way. But feelings and reality aren’t always the same thing. Magazines are probably the example most people think of first. We’ve all heard someone say, “In ten years, no one will care about print anymore.” Looking at newspaper sales in Germany, the numbers tell a pretty clear story. In the second quarter of 2005, around 21 million print newspapers were sold. Twenty years later, in the second quarter of 2025, that number had fallen to around 10.5 million. Even in 2015 there were still around 15 million copies sold. So maybe there isn’t much of an analogue revival after all. This trend becomes even clearer when looking at digital editions. In the first quarter of 2017, around 1.1 million e-papers were sold in Germany. Just eight years later, in the first quarter of 2025, that number had almost tripled to 3.3 million copies.
Let’s look at music. The year 2024 was a strong one for both streaming and physical formats. Music streaming grew by 7.8% compared to 2023. At the same time, nearly 14% of the music industry’s revenue still came from physical formats such as vinyl. That shows there is still demand for analogue, but streaming clearly dominates. Looking at the wider entertainment market, including music, video and games, the picture becomes even clearer. Physical formats declined by 16.9%, while digital formats grew by 4.1%. Even Berlin’s famous DVD store couldn’t escape that reality. When it closed its doors in 2022, it became another reminder that appreciation for analogue doesn’t always translate into everyday use.
Photography is where things get a little more interesting. With analogue, every shot counts. You choose your timing, your subject and your light with real intention. Or you don’t, and that’s when you end up with those candid pictures nobody could have planned. It’s less about control and more about the moment itself. Digital photography is almost the opposite. You have complete control over exposure, lighting and focus, and if something isn’t right, you fix it immediately. From a business perspective, digital is obviously more practical. It’s faster, cheaper and much easier to work with. But that doesn’t necessarily make it better. They simply offer different experiences.
So, is analogue really back? I don’t think so. At least not in the way social media sometimes makes it seem. I feel like this trend is especially popular among collectors, creatives and, let’s be honest, the “cool kids”. The numbers tell a different story. We still stream our music, read the news online and take most of our pictures with our phones. What we are seeing is less of a full comeback and more of a trend. That doesn’t make analogue any less valuable, though. Digital is still shaping the future and, realistically, it’s not going anywhere. But maybe that’s not the point. Analogue gives us something digital often doesn’t: a reason to slow down, to be more present and to enjoy the process instead of rushing to the result. And maybe that’s exactly why so many of us keep coming back to it. Honestly, I think that record player has been collecting dust long enough. Maybe it’s time to bring it home, look through my vinyl collection, put on a record and simply sit back and listen.