SoundScan predicts vinyl sales will reach 2.8 million units in 2009, up from 1.9 million in 2008, a record since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991. Already in 2009, vinyl sales have topped 1 million. At this point last year, vinyl sales stood at 701,000 copies. To be fair, the number is still tiny compared to overall album sales.

Vinyl, SoundScan points out, accounts for less than 1% of overall album sales. In other words, vinyl sales represent about six months in the life of Taylor Swift, whose late 2008 release, "Fearless," has already sold more than 3.3 million copies. To date in 2009, 121.8 million CDs have been sold, versus 33.2 million digital albums, compared to 151.01 million CDs and 27.52 digital albums for the same period last year.

While the niche may still be small measured against overall sales of recorded music, the surge of interest in vinyl -- and, particularly, its rising cachet among young listeners -- is providing a rare glimmer of hope in a hemorrhaging industry. "Even if the industry doesn't do all that well going forward, we could really carve this out to be a nice profitable niche," said Bill Gagnon, a senior vice president at EMI Catalog Marketing, who is in charge of vinyl releases. He said that people who buy vinyl nowadays are charmed by the format's earthy authenticity. "It's almost a back-to-nature approach," Mr. Gagnon said. "It's the difference between growing your own vegetables and purchasing them frozen in the supermarket."

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Vinyl is suddenly chic, he said, even among people too young to have grown up with the familiar crackle of a needle carving through the grooves of an album. "I have friends who have younger kids -- 13, 15 years old, even 10 -- and all those kids want turntables," he said. "Their parents are like: Wait a minute. What are you talking about?"

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This year Capitol/EMI is in the process of reissuing its first substantial vinyl catalog in decades. Some of those albums, like "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys, are classic rock leviathans aimed at nostalgic baby boomers. But many are albums by contemporary artists, like Radiohead and Coldplay, who appeal to young music buyers, Mr. Gagnon said. Most are pressed on acoustically superior 180-gram vinyl, and many are packaged in gatefold jackets, so they can serve as collectors' items for young fans who might also have the music in its digital form.