When Taylor Swift’s releases her new album, “Life of a Showgirl,” in October, it can be heard on the usual places, including streaming, vinyl and…cassette tape?
The cassette tape was once one of the most common ways to listen to music, overtaking vinyl in the 1980s before being surpassed by CDs. But the physical audio format has become an artifact of a bygone era, giving way to the convenience of streaming.
Or, that’s what many thought.
In 2023, 436,400 cassettes were sold in the United States, according to the most recent data available from Luminate, an entertainment data firm. Although that’s a far cry from the 440 million cassettes sold in the 1980s, it’s a sharp increase from the 80,720 cassettes sold in 2015 and a notable revival for a format that had been all but written off.
Cassettes might not be experiencing the resurgence of vinyls or even CDs, but they are making a bit of a comeback, spurred by fans wanting an intimate experience with music and nostalgia, said Charlie Kaplan, owner of online store Tapehead City.
“People just like having something you can hold and keep, especially now when everything’s just a rented file on your phone,” Kaplan told CNN.
“Tapes provide a different type of listening experience — not perfect, but that’s part of it. Flip it over, look at the art and listen all the way through. You connect with the music with more of your senses,” he said.
it’s actually super common for underground music. I have a collection of new music on cassette. it costs a lot of money to press vinyl, and a lot of bands just aren’t there.
I did a collaboration once where we were considering doing a limited release of a one-off song on an Edison cylinder recording.
Turns out that yes, there are firms that produce them, but those fuckers are expensive.
And notice that nobody wants to release on 8-track tape cartridges. That’s because those things sucked.
Another one of those pointless articles… Cassettes have been on the rise for a couple of years now, and for the same reasons that vinyl has been making a comeback; mainly fake nostalgia and the yearning for true ownership in form of physical media.
As a vinyl snob, listening to music on that medium isn’t better. The quality is at best a little worse than what you get from a CD, it’s inconvenient, bloody expensive and it takes up space.
BUT you get to actually hold the music you love in your hands and listen to it more intently, because you’ve made the effort of putting on a record instead of just pressing play. I like that.
Edit: just realised I just made the same points the article made… oh well. I’ll just continue archiving my CD collection. Not (only) for posterity, but as a big middle finger to the RIAA.
Another one of those pointless articles… Cassettes have been on the rise for a couple of years now, and for the same reasons that vinyl has been making a comeback; mainly fake nostalgia and the yearning for true ownership in form of physical media.
No. Cassettes sound like shit. They are a very lossy format. Vinyl actually sounds different in ways that people like. My vinyl collection has nothing to do with nostalgia (I grew up after CDs were on the rise). On a solid system, there’s a lot more fidelity in the bass on vinyl.
mainly fake nostalgia
Is there any other kind?
Gen Z is an interesting bunch. Opting for blurry photos and bringing back JNCO jeans.
The 90’s are back.
“Blurry photos”? Those are just photos with a shallow depth of field. That never went out of style.
Became harder to do with phones though.
I’m fuming at this too. Pictures with some amount of bokeh is the standard look unless you’re shooting landscape camera or using a telephone to snap pictures.
I showed them all this stuff before and my kids thought it was lame. Their friends start to listen or wear said things and now it’s cool… Kids lol nothing changes.
They are just like every other generation before them. They think anything that’s 20-30 years old is ancient history and they want to ‘connect’ to a past they didn’t live through and it also makes them feel different than their parents who are all into streaming services and gave up physical media who lived through the progression of formats from analog, to digital, to non-physical.
I definitely prefer to purchase my music on CD when possible. As someone who grew up with Cassettes, it’s one tech I’m fine with being pushed into history. I’d rather have Minidiscs than cassettes.
yeah. i wonder why they aren’t binging back VHS too. because it objectively sucks compared to what we have now.
VHS isn’t coming back because you simply can’t buy a CRT and VCR. These are no longer being made, the existing ones are degrading and overpriced.
Otherwise they’d absolutely be back, a lot of videos on YouTube and TikTok are specifically longing for VHS.
Perhaps a reason to dust off my walkman! … if this cassette is even affordable.
properly new cassettes are usually not expensive. it’s only original classics from 30-40 yrs ago that are marked up.
I figure normally, yeah, but I feel like Taylor Swift playing around with a new medium probably comes with a heavy price tag.
oh maybe, i’m not actually a Swift fan. i’m just here for cassette talk. XD
i tend to get my new cassettes for around €7-€12.
Me neither honestly, I just know she seems to have a massive following of fans that will do or pay anything that she touches lmao But it would be cool to buy some in general. I can’t remember how many times I listened to one Joan Jett tape as a kid
word, exactly.
i tend to get them from Bandcamp on Bandcamp fridays, if you’re interested.
I am, thank you! I’ll definitely be on the lookout.
