Hold off on that that 'the future of music is doomed' piece for just a moment - there is a glimmer of hope on the horizon.
It seems that people still place value on the physical product, as last week - in the UK, at least - vinyl outsold digital downloads for the first time ever.
The ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association) reports that vinyls took £2.4 million, in comparison to downloads at £2.1 million. This is a huge turnabout from 2015 alone, when vinyls generated £1.2 million and downloads £4.4 million in the same week.
Of course, the time of year has a lot to do with the upturn in vinyl sales; it's undoubtedly nicer to hand someone a lovely record as a Christmas gift, rather than an impersonal iTunes voucher. There is also the fact that vinyls are being stocked in places like supermarkets and even Tiger stores these days, making them more available to people who may not otherwise shop in music stores, as well as the fact that vinyls generally cost more than downloads.
Still, few people could have expected just how popular vinyls - which were invented in 1948, remember - would once again become...
