Sales of vinyl albums have doubled in 2013 so far in the UK, buoyed by the popularity of LPs from Daft Punk, David Bowie and Arctic Monkeys.

Music industry body the BPI says that nearly 550,000 vinyl albums have been sold so far this year, predicting an end-of-year total of more than 700,000, which would mark the biggest year for the format since 2001.

"The LP is back in the groove. We're witnessing a renaissance for records – they're no longer retro-mania and are becoming the format of choice for more and more music fans," said chief executive Geoff Taylor.

Vinyl remains a niche within the overall music market in the UK, albeit a rapidly-growing one. With 15,000 LPs being sold every week, vinyl now accounts for 0.8% of UK album sales, up from 0.1% in 2007. Daft Punk's Random Access Memories is the biggest-selling LP so far in 2013.

This may be analogue music, but digital is playing a role in vinyl's resurgence, with an increasing number of LPs being sold with codes enabling the buyer to download MP3s of the tracks for listening to away from their record player.

The BPI estimates that LP sales could reach £12m in the UK this year, with £2m of that having been spent on a single day, 20 April, which was dubbed Record Store Day as a celebration of independent record shops.

"Record Store Day has been incredibly important as a catalyst for the resurgence of vinyl," said Kim Bayley, director general of industry body the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) which organised the nationwide event.

"The fact that indie record shops managed to sell a huge £2m worth of vinyl in one day puts paid to the idea that either vinyl or record stores themselves are on the way out."

Earlier this year, ERA announced that Britain's remaining 300 independent record stores saw their album sales increase by 44% in the first half of 2013, accounting for 3.2% of all album sales in the UK, but more than 50% of vinyl album sales.

Vinyl buyers may still be relatively small in number, but they're committed. The BPI surveyed 1,700 in September to find out more about their habits, and found that one in five buy at least once a week, while seven in 10 buy at least once a month.

The BPI's survey also shows that the average vinyl buyer has 300 LPs and 80 singles in their collection. 35.3% of vinyl buyers are aged under 35, but some stereotypes remain intact: 87.4% of the survey's respondents were men.

The BPI's stats on 100% year-on-year growth for vinyl sales in the UK comes from data supplied by the Official Charts Company, but it's backed up by earlier figures announced by Amazon in September, when it said vinyl sales on its site had also doubled compared to 2012.

The company launched a feature called AutoRip in June, providing MP3 downloads when customers bought CD or vinyl versions of more than 350,000 albums. The BPI's survey found that besides indie stores and Amazon, eBay, label websites and charity or second-hand shops are also popular hunting grounds for LPs.