Stereo, 5.1, 7.1 ... never mind those speaker effects - Binaural Recording is definitely going to be the new wave. How can it still be relatively niche?

Watch this, it'll be well worth it even if you know about binaural recording, thanks to the guys at the Verge (NB: you will need headphones for this):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd5i7TlpzCk

Funnily enough I'd already heard 'The Virtual Barbershop' example quoted above many years ago, but what a great blast from the past! Here's the whole thing (just put headphones on and close your eyes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA

PS: If you're like me and you start looking for other binaural recording examples on YouTube, you're going to be pretty disappointed by the slim pickings. There is some really weird ASMR stuff (an entire field I'd never even heard of before - no pun intended), and the odd binaural beats referred to in the original video above, but hopefully more media producers will start integrating this going forward!