But if the music companies think this is a way back to fortune by charging the public a premium, then this will be a very sad, and dead, little duck.

Look at history (as you so nicely elaborated at the beginning of the article). Shellac, bakelite, then vinyl record started the ball rolling. Cassette was slow to get going, but did so through some improvements in technology (being able to get better quality out of the tapes), and being pretty cheap to produce in comparison to vinyl.

CD was successful as both a storage medium and audio medium, but the quality was vastly superior to cassette (and didn’t get chewed up in the player’s mechanisms).

One little blip that has happened is that cassette inevitably has died a death, but vinyl hasn’t. Simple reason is this – quality.

To an audiophile, if you’ve got reasonably expensive kit, vinyl will blow the socks off of CD as the range involved is far superior (but not in all cases, it has to be said). Yes, you do have to really look after the vinly and get a good cleaner, but that’s hardly a consideration to an audiophile.

I always frowned at this line of thinking, until I invested in some decent equipment last year. I can confidently say that my £1500 CD player is amazing, but compared to my £500 turntable, the difference can be astonishing at times.

OK, I digress a little, but what is apparent is this. If you like music, you’re either an audiophile or not. If you are, then you can happily get/download excellent lossless formats that do the duty for you. If you aren’t, then any decent recording will do. Either way, I can’t see what this really offers over and above what is already easily available.

Also, if you’re a fan of the particular artist/genre/label, well, there’s the internet and fan sites galore.

Bearing all this in mind, I think it’s a neat idea, with nothing really new to offer, and if the major labels get hold of it, it will die. End of.