Why do you call vinyl records vinyl records?

Answer 1

Vinyl records are called such because of the material Lp's (33 1/3 RPM) and 45's RPM records are made out of. Before the creation of Lp's in 1948, most records were pressed with shellac and more properly called gramophone records.

Answer 2

Because it has a warmer, more vintage sound than digital music, because it is nice to have a physical copy of the music, because you can look at the album artwork while listening to the record, because you can pretend that you are from the 60s or something, etc. Also, if you can't find it on vinyl its probably not worth listening to, because if it were worth listening to, hipsters would demand it be on vinyl. That said, I once saw the Twilight soundtrack in a record store, so the converse of that statement is not always true.

Peace.