
In the UK, 3.2 million vinyl records were sold last year, up 53% on 2015 and the highest number in 25 years.
That is against 47.3 million CDs and 18.1 million digital album sales – both down substantially on the year before.
Streaming continues to become the primary method of music consumption, meanwhile, and BPI data predicts it will overtake physical sales as the biggest revenue generator for the industry this year.
But with vinyl developing a growing market niche, Sony has made the decision to begin in-house production at a factory in Japan, by March 2018.
For the last two and a half decades, vinyl production has been confirmed to small specialist companies. But according to , the country’s only manufacturer was struggling to keep up with demand.
