Viva vinyl! Sony makes LPs again

SONY is to start making vinyl records again – three decades after it stopped pressing LPs.

A factory southwest of Tokyo will begin churning out albums by March next year on the back of surging demand for the retro music format.

Vinyl sales plummeted in the 1980s due to the rise of CDs. But the records continued to be bought by dedicated DJs, older enthusiasts and collectors and eventually found favour with influential indie bands and their fans.

Sony, which is one of the big three global record companies, stopped pressing vinyl records in 1989.

It is now scrambling to find older engineers who know how to press vinyl.

Global vinyl revenue is expected to top £770million this year, while sales of CDs and digital downloads continue to fall, according to the consultancy Deloitte.