I think you missed my point. It's not whether or not vinyl sales as a percentage of overall recorded music sales qualify as "niche", even though I suspect it does, but that the survival of the medium was made possible through the release of new machines on which to play it. If new turntables and cartridges hadn't been made, the dwindling number of working, old turntables and cartridges would have condemned the whole experience to a slow but certain death. Conversely, we need new film cameras to be produced to take the place of the constantly shrinking number of old existing film cameras out there. Especially mid-and high end models would be required. Aging of the population, if you will.