Or what happened to EMI's plant when the hedge fund people came.
UK sales of seven inch singles increased from 180,000 in 2001 to more than a million in 2007, as young people discovered the format for the first time. Dance music DJs still use records to mix, and the notion of collecting vinyl is catching on again among older people, as new artists bring out limited editions with original artwork.
Sales of albums on vinyl are still declining, although the rate of decline has slowed in recent years. It is now thought that the format may benefit from the demise of the CD.
"For a long time we've said the physical representation of music will more likely be vinyl than CD," says Wadhwa. "Digital music and CDs have the same sound. Analog sound is warmer, it offers a different way of listening to music."
He accepts that digital downloads will remain the most popular way of buying music, but argues that it is a throwaway format. "When I put a record on it becomes a talking point, people gather around the record player, they pass the sleeve around. If you put an iPod on it becomes background music."
Vinyl will remain a niche product, he says, but one made viable by the internet. "Before there might have been 500 people in the UK who would have bought a particular record on vinyl, now we can reach 200,000 people globally."
Wadhwa, who trained as a barrister, came across the EMI press when looking at an old Art Deco building. "Chugging away in a small part of it was a vinyl plant," he says. Despite having no experience of the music industry, he and former Olympic sailor Tim Robinson bought it.
The plant now puts out 2m-3m records a year for independent labels, as well as the big four who use it as a mark of quality.
"EMI from 1905 to 1970 spent millions of pounds perfecting the machinery that made their records," says Wadhwa. "The machinery was absolutely unique." As such, the Vinyl Factory has had to develop a method to hand-make replacement parts for the machines.
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Tue, 03 Feb 2009