If you’re looking for a place in Hamilton where you can browse and buy your favourite tunes in a physical format, don’t bank on it being an easy search.Because the digital age has taken its toll on record stores and departments. For the few retailers that still sell CDs, diversify stock lines has proven to be the crucial key.If you’re looking for tape cassettes, you’re out of luck. However, if you’re on the look out for that even more dated physical format, the vinyl record, well there’s some surprising news vinyl is starting to make a comeback.Music Box, on Reid Street, has been selling recorded music for many decades. Manager Helena Escolastica started working in the shop after she left school, she has seen a lot of changes in musical trends and customers’ preferences during her 35 years behind the counter.“We used to have eight-track cassettes, and they were replaced by regular tape cassettes and of course we had vinyl records,” she recalls.Today recorded music at Music Box comes in one format, CDs (compact discs), although a small but growing revival of vinyl records elsewhere means customers can now place an order for something on the yesteryear format.Worldwide sales of CDs have dropped in recent years, increasingly replaced by digital downloads which allow songs to quickly be bought and transferred to a mobile device, such as a smartphone or MP3 player.Between 2011 and 2012, physical format music sales fell from 61 percent of the total music market to 58 percent.Ms Escolastica has seen the trend in Bermuda and estimates the store only sells about a quarter of the volume of CDs it once did. However, she says Music Box’s customers tend to be those above the age of 25 or 30 who are less inclined to be digital music downloaders.“My customers are not the teeny-boppers, they like to have a CD to play. For them digital downloading doesn’t do it,” she said.Certain recording artists continue to sell well, such as Adele, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, as well as ‘staples’ such as Tupac, R&B, hip-hop, reggae and gospel.If all Music Box sold was CDs, then economically things would be grim, but it has benefited from having a far wider selection of wares to sell. Ms Escolastica praises the store’s late owner Eddy DeMello for having the foresight to diversify the business.“The reason why we are able to keep going is that we also sell DVDs, music books and musical instruments,” she said.“Mr DeMello was smart by diversifying. One day we can be doing well selling CDs, another day it might sell more books or more DVDs.”The store has seen a boon from customers buying DVDs of British TV serials, such as ‘Downton Abbey’, and ‘Doc Martin’.However, the love of recorded music continues. The shop has a steady stream of customers, who come in to buy their favourite artist, or to replace records they once had with the latest classic reissues. Many of them appreciate having a physical object to look at, with artwork on the cover and information about the artist and the songs included with the CD.Those of the younger generation who are buying vinyl records are also highly appreciative of the artwork that comes along with the larger vinyl format. Music Box assistant Alex Nanud has started collecting vinyl. He said: “There is so much more thought put into the artwork. Vinyl is becoming more mainstream. A lot of independent labels and artists really focus on the artwork that comes with the record.”Mr Nanud remembers his parents playing vinyl records when he was younger. He has recently bought a few of his own ... now all he needs is a record player.Another retailer selling CDs in town is Sound Stage, in Washington Mall. Like Music Box, it has a diversified stock offering, selling DVDs and phone accessaries alongside its selection of music CDs. And that is important, believes manager David DeSilva who has seen CD sales fall over the years. Where once the most popular albums sold 200 or 300 copies, now a good seller might move only 50 units.But there are still customers who prefer to have a physical format rather than a digital download. “A lot of our older customers like to have reggae on a CD, or the latest from Beyonce or Rihanna. We still sell a lot from those artists.“But we have to have different products to sell, such as the phone accessories and DVDs. Some days we’ll sell more DVDs than CDs.”