INTRO
Since the birth of digital music downloads, UK CD sales have been in decline.
But in the second quarter of the year - the UK has seen a slowdown in that decline, largely driven by strong album releases and a desire from consumers to own a physical product.
So, could this be the beginning of a CD revival in the UK, as we've seen take hold of the Vinyl format?
Our UK Correspondent Natalie Powell finds out…
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In this independent music shop in London, music fans come in for the experience….
As well as flicking through the shelves of CDs and Vinyl on offer, there are regularly live bands in-store and a focus on delivering top customer service.
Here's Sam Jones from Rough Trade East:
"We let people open the records and listen to them here, we've got about 20 CD players here that staff has picked, you can come in here and listen to probably over 100 different records"
UK CD sales however have been dropping ever since digital music downloads appeared.
Yet this year the UK has seen that decline slow, as Gennaro Castaldo the Director of Communications at BPI, a trade association for record labels, explains.
"CD as well, which a lot of people had expected to be wiped from the face of the earth right now, is still hanging around, it has an amazing resilience. Last year nearly 50 million CDs were sold in the UK, and it went down by about a tenth. Now this year 2017, that decline has slowed a little bit 6% or so, so it is still going down, however we may see a point where it really stabilises and it will become part of the fixed ecosystem of music."
That fixed ecosystem of music includes streaming, downloads, CDs and Vinyl.
And experts believe that streaming - which has taken over from buying a digital download of a song or album - is changing the music market once again.
The idea is that music fans will pay for a streaming service - but if they really love an album, they will also want to own a physical copy of it
UPSOT: "That'll be £6 Please"
Here's Gennaro Castaldo of the BPI again
Where as digital downloads when they were in their ascendancy were almost wiping out physical music, because you'd either buy the digital download or you'd buy the CD. However, streaming has come along… and it is a different approach to music, it is n't about ownership it is about access. It seems to be permitting this space for physical as well"
The want to own a physical copy of an album or single has had a huge impact on UK vinyl sales. The BPI says in 2007 there were 200 thousand sales, with an estimated 4 million sales expected this year.
Over in the Rough Trade East store, they are selling slightly more vinyl than CDs, but General Manger Sam Jones says there is still a customer-base for CDs
"Vinyl is great. With CD the quality is still high, it can't warp it's a lot smaller It's definitely still going strong as a format.
There's just always going to be a market for it, it is quite a convenient format, it's … if people aren't going to buy vinyl, they're going to buy CDs, naturally it is a bit cheaper as well. I think it is a really good alternative to vinyl"
CDs also tend to be released ahead of the vinyl version - helping to boost sales.
While big releases are another factor drawing people in to buying a physical copy of an album, as opposed to streaming it, as Gennaro Casaldo of the BPI explains.
" So CD loves Adele, it loves Ed Shreean, because it's typically when the wider public that don't regard themselves as core music fans but a couple of times a year they might make a purchase when a big release comes out and they become aware of it."
Most in the music industry agree that the CD is unlikely to have the same revival story that Vinyl has seen, but they also agree that this is certainly not the death of the CD either.
And the format is likely to exist as part of a music eco-system - which gives more choice to music lovers.
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