Few would argue that the average British high street has not changed immeasurably in recent years, with the shift towards online retailing often forcing in-store retailers to adapt or disappear.
A stroll through your local town might show a curious phenomenon that appears to defy this trend: physical music and video retailers that are not only surviving, but thriving in the face of competition from the instant convenience and lower price point of music and video streaming platforms. HMV is posting profits (following a 2019 restructure), while the number of independent record retailers has risen to just under 500 from 340 a decade prior. What’s behind this? The answer lies largely in the surging popularity of vinyl records: UK sales hit an 18-year high in 2025, a trend mirrored elsewhere in the world as the US vinyl market crossed the $1bn threshold last year. Growth is not, as one might expect, being driven by nostalgic older consumers. Instead, sales are dominated by generations Z and increasingly also Alpha – consumers who are too young to remember a time before digital music streaming.
One of the primary reasons is that vinyl offers an irreplaceable experience that can’t be replicated from digital alone – in an age of digital saturation and AI-generated music, video and images, people want physical items they can own, collect and experience in real life. Film photography, physical books and letter writing are all showing a positive re-emergence. This preference for analogue instead of online isn’t limited to media buying habits – many are also shunning tech in other ways in favour of in-person experiences. My daughter walked the Camino de Santiago solo this summer and found time away from her phone meant she could fully enjoy the experience, meeting people along the way – infinitely more rewarding than living life through a screen.
I think the same thing really applies to wealth management. While digital tools and online portals can improve access to information and streamline administration, in my view there is no substitute for the human element: meeting clients to get an understanding of their goals, family situations and wider lives. This of course does not negate the need for us as a firm to remain at the cutting edge of changes in technological development, in order to keep clients safe and enhance the service we provide. We are currently updating both our client portal and app for this reason – but the intent is to augment, rather than replace, the human-led service that JM Finn offers to our clients.
The firm turns 80 this year, having transcended the advent of a vast range of developments in technology that would undoubtedly make the day-to-day running of our business unrecognisable from how it looked in 1946. What has remained constant however, is the simple core principle of building personal relationships with clients over the long term. In a world of digital saturation, keeping human connection at the heart of our business should stand us in good stead for the next 80 years.
