As CD sales continue to tumble, the RIAA has been checking the pulse of vinyl to see if there’s any life they can squeeze out of the much-loved format. Bands such as the White Stripes have kept the vinyl flag flying during the lean years, and this report from Eliot Buskirk at Wired points towards an eyebrow-raising increase in sales over the last year.   

Vinyl has outlived ingenious inventions such as the phonographic cylinder, cassettes, 8-track tapes, Minidiscs, DVD-Audio, and many other obstacles that the industry has hurled in its path. But like some indestructible behemoth that keeps coming back for more, vinyl will not lay down and die! Personally, I miss the Cassingle, but it’s nothing that a few hours of weekly therapy won’t fix.

The RIAA figures indicate that 2007 vinyl sales increased by 36.6 percent in comparison to the previous year, while CD sales are down by 11.7 percent. There’s life in those dusty grooves yet, although some of the comments following Buskirk’s article suggest that it may not be as cut and dried as he makes out.