Kenny Cotich loves placing a vinyl record on his record player, finding the song he wants by counting the lines, positioning the stylus or needle on the record and relishing the little pop as the electronic connection is made.

Cotich, of Manor Township, is only 19, and he is not alone in his love of records. Young and old are returning to vinyl as the music format of choice.

Forget the MP3 players, compact discs and computer downloads. Records have the best sound and the best aesthetic experience, fans say.

Nationwide, Nielsen SoundScan, reported 1.88 million records sold in 2008, almost twice as many as 2007. The numbers are still small, compared to the total 428.4 million albums that were sold, nevertheless the statistics reflect the growing interest that local independent record stores have been seeing over the past five years.

Local record store owners are seeing more interest in vintage records and in records made by many modern alternative bands, especially variations of indie, punk, electronic and folk music.

"Someone who is 16 will come in and buy a Beach Boys record along with something that's very current," Mike Madrigale, 28, owner of Mr. Suit Records, 118 W. Chestnut Street, said.

The top LP for 2008, according to Nielsen SoundScan, was "In Rainbows," by Radiohead, a British alternative rock band. However, albums by the Beatles, Guns N' Roses and Metallica also made the list of top 10 LPs sold last year.

In spite of the portability and popularity of digital music, Madrigale said, "some people like to have this tactile object as opposed to constantly dealing with the Internet and the computers."

Jim Bowman, manager of Glick Audio and Video on Lincoln Highway is seeing an increased interest in people, primarily those under age 30 or over 50, who want to purchase record players and those who want their old record players repaired, he said.

"There's just nothing like taking the record out of the sleeve, putting it on the turntable and watching it go around and ride up and down," Bowman said.

"You have a human experience you don't have when a CD snatches it away," he said.

Part of the aesthetic appeal, said Rafael Diaz, 18, a music aficionado from Centerville, is the marriage of music and art on an album.

The vinyl can be any color, even splattered with color. Some bands, such as Silver Mount Zion, etch designs into the non-playing side of the record. Even the sides of the album can be marked creatively. For example, an album by The Blue Letter uses a cocoon to mark side one and a butterfly for side two.

Diaz owns a dual-release by Japanese screamo band Envy, and a post-hardcore band, Thursday. Both screamo and post-hardcore are evolutions of hardcore punk, a distilled form of punk music marked by short songs and straightforward lyrics, according to Madrigale.

The album cover is screen printed in gray and black, and the vinyl itself is printed in two limited editions: one black with silver splattered along the edges, and the other is black with gold splattered on the edges.

Many album covers and even the vinyl itself complement the mood and theme of the music, he said. They also help the fans develop a connection with the band with pictures and personal information about the members.

"It's just one of those things where … the relationship with the band and the music is strengthened," Diaz said.

For younger people, the aesthetic experience tends to be more important than the quality of music, Diaz said, simply because many teens can't afford good quality record players.

That explains why they like the CDs or free downloads (with cleaner quality) that are packaged with many records. You still can't use a record player in the car, noted Alex Clark, who was hanging out at Mr. Suit.

For people who can afford the technology, the analog recording quality is notably better than digital sound, Bowman said.

"It has a warmth and a dynamic range that doesn't exist today (in digital music)," Bowman said. With the European turntables he sells, starting at $350, you can hear the quality, he said.

"The mission of any music format is to have it sound exactly like it did in the recording studio and have no interference," Diaz said. Analog sound, used on most records, does that.

About 10 years ago, Madrigale said, some older bands were re-releasing records made with digital sound to make it sound like a CD. That trend went away pretty quickly, he said.

"I used to think, unless you listen to records all day, you probably don't notice a difference," Madrigale said, "but if you listen to something on headphones, you can hear the tinniness of the digital sound."

The CDs, with their digital sound, … have become dust collectors, he said. "No one wants them all of a sudden."

The cost of records has not necessarily gone up with the interest. An ABBA record at Mr. Suit Records was only $4.99. People tend to hold on to records, Madrigale said, so you can still find some great classic records at yard sales.

Even modern records are at least as affordable as CDs, Diaz said, and sometimes cost less. He has one modern album with three records that he bought for less than $30.

The interest in records has lead to record parties, Madrigale said. Some are just young people getting together, putting on the records, to dance and have a good time.

Yes, the dancing might cause the record to skip, but that's all part of the experience, Madrigale said. Plus, Clark said, there are ways to counterbalance the arm of the record players so it doesn't skip easily.

Others are collectors' parties, where serious collectors get together to listen to records they might want to buy and assure themselves of the quality.

Cotich, a music major at Millersville University, said he and a friend, who also likes records, get together to listen to each other's collections, talk about their favorite labels and new releases.

Although he buys new records, he prefers collecting the original records of old bands.

"Records are like wine," Cotich, who has inherited his mother's record collection, including albums by Cat Stevens and Led Zeppelin, said. The aged ones are the best.

E-mail: lespenshade@lnpnews.com