If video killed the radio star, surely it was only going to be a matter of time before digital murdered vinyl?

But instead of being smashed into a million pieces, the long-playing record has been given a new lease of life – and its saviour is an unlikely source: its expected tormentor.

According to those in the industry, rather than crushing vinyl to a pulp as promised by various doom merchants, the digital music revolution has, in fact, given LPs a much-needed boost.

‘What we’ve found, if anything, is that digital music – download and streaming – has led to the growth in vinyl sales because they’re very complimentary formats,’ said Stephen Godfroy, co-owner of Rough Trade, which has two music stores in London and has just opened another in New York.