Down goes the needle, click goes the speaker, a soft whoosh of silence and the music begins. Until the advent of the now ubiquitous CD, such was the sound that met music-lovers as they placed favourite vinyl records on their 'pickups'.

And it is a sound that is increasingly returning to Denmark as the LP slowly makes its comeback to the shelves of music shops. In 2008, sales of 'vinyl' rose 63 percent compared with 2007 - and the industry believes sales will continue to rise.

CDs lose ground
The phenomenon is the result of various factors, but one of them is a feeling that CDs have just lost out.

"One of the reasons that records are more popular today is perhaps that people find it difficult to pay 120 kroner for a CD, when they can burn one at home. The CD is nothing special any mroe," says Tim Rose, former co-owner of Repo Man Records in Copenhagen.

"There are collectors who try to make money from rare records - just as others do with antiques. Records produced after 1993, for example, are rare because CDs more or less stopped production and everyone sold off their record collections. But it seems that most musicians today also release vinyl when they produce a new album," Rose says.

Turntables
In 2008 some 20 percent of Danish music production from Sony Music was on vinyl records, while Playground Music reached a full 40 percent.

At the same time hardware outlets such as Lydbutikken in Copenhagen report increased player sales.

"We can really feel the boom in records. We don't sell so many CD-players any more - on the other hand we sell some 7-8 record players each week. It's not unusual for a young girl to come in and pay 2,500 kroner for a record player, and in Copenahegn alone some 10-12 outlets have opened that only sell vinyl records," says Kristian Hansen of Lydbutikken.

Quality
Hansen says that in the near future, music lovers will use downloads and streaming when they want easy access - and buy LPs when they want quality. Hansen adds that in the quality race - analogue beats digital.

"When people go to a concert or just listen to music being played, they can hear that it doesn't sound the same as what they hear on their MP3 player. If you've heard a concert, or just a live guitar, and want to have that sound at home, you can only get it on a record - the sound is better, because it's analogue," says Hansen.