I'm a huge huge fan of music, a big ol' nerd about it and I've been collecting records for like 13 years. My reasons are similar to others mentioned already. I usually listen to super underground DIY stuff and I love to support artists who come to my town, and my local record store. I like the intentionality of listening to a record; I can put it on as background music but even then I need to look over each album, pick it out and put it on instead of just quickly choosing a random playlist and not even looking at the artists. The physical ritual is really comforting.

My record collection also kinda functions similarly to a photo album for me. Each record reminds me of when I bought it, when I was super into the artist or which show I was at when I got it. Super nostalgic. I'm also just a very tactile person so the tactile aspect just changes the quality of listening to music, idk.

Also, once rapidshare/music blogs kinda died out and streaming services really took over, it's been almost impossible for me to remember new artists that discover that I like. When I used to peruse the blogspots, I'd actually read reviews, download like 2 dozen albums and listen to them and they'd end up in my normal rotation. With streaming services I have sooooo much access to so much music which I love, but it all kinda blends together and I forget to really spend intentional time listening to them