In the last few months debate has been raging about the value of physical music, in an age where more and more of us are relying on internet downloads – whether legal or not – to satisfy our musical cravings.In fact, there was recently a collective sigh at the news that Mercury Records - the label home to bands such as Arcade Fire, U2 and The Killers - announced it was to stop production of physical singles and vinyl records. Inevitable as this may be, what does it mean for the future of physical releases in the music industry? Well, not a lot really. Mercury has stated that they have only released physical singles when the demand has been there for the past two years anyway. When you take into account that physical formats now only account for just over 1% of the overall singles market and that Mercury made a loss on single releases in 2010, Mercury’s decision is simply straightforward business sense.
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