Before recording technology existed, you could not separate music from its social context. Epic songs and ballads, troubadours, courtly entertainments, church music, shamanic chants, pub sing-alongs, ceremonial music, military music, dance music — it was pretty much all tied to specific social functions.

The fact is, that the infrastructure needed to cut masters and replicate copies is falling apart. There are NO replacement parts available for the lathes, cutter heads, presses, injection molding equipment, etc. And if that is not a tall enough hurtle, we face another. The quality of newly produced vinyl is, and I am being kind, inconsistent. - joepalm, in the comments

Gerd Leonhard, a music business consultant, predicts that by 2010, recorded music sales will make up only 30 per cent of a successful label's revenues. The rest will be generated by artists' extra-musical brand extensions. Like those $20 T-shirts.

"Record sales as we know them are in long-term decline," says music business analyst Keith Jopling. "Whereas the wider music market—live, merchandising, streaming video and music social networking—is in rude health. After seven years of gradual change, we are about to see a major shift. Record companies are, at last, in a hurry to transform themselves into proper consumer marketing companies."