Alive and Kicking - A Cassette Revival?

Re, Re-Wind – the rebirth of the cassette


Whilst the increasing popularity of vinyl was a predictable reaction to the digitisation of music, the renaissance of another physical format has taken many more people by surprise: from being seemingly extinct a decade ago, the humble tape has been enjoying a stunning resurgence in appeal.

The most popular analogue audio format ever created, the cassette’s heyday was in the 1980’s when hardware like the Sony Walkman first gave consumers absolute portability of sound. Hastened by the introduction of the Compact Disc its commercial decline was precipitous however, and by the time the twenty-first century had taken root sales had dwindled to almost nothing.

The bounce back though has begun - in 2019 the British record labels association the BPI estimated over 100,000 tapes were snapped up, a big increase from 36,000 the previous year. With the means to play them generally now located in thrift stores, Karen Emanuel of manufacturers the Key Production Group seemed as surprised as anyone by the public’s new enthusiasm. “We never stopped producing them, but demand had tailed off to tapes for police interviews.”

Reasons for the format’s comeback vary from the pragmatic to the so 21st century. For artists, the costs of producing small batches are generally cheaper than for both vinyl or CD and given the infinitesimal money to be made from the likes of Spotify, a release with a little collectability is a way for them to get at least some cash return on their effort.

Its widely thought that the main fan boy/girl demographic for cassettes are those under 25, but the reasons for this are less clear; these we were told would be generations who would reject the concept of owning material stuff for the ubiquity of streaming platforms and their carousel of choice. Instead the reverse appears to be true, with, much like vinyl, the suggestion that a tactile nature and the Instagramable attraction of these little packages makes them highly sought after.

Whilst the numbers sound good, tapes still constitute little more than a niche market in industry terms. At Daddy Pop however we’ve also seen a major rise in interest around our extensive catalogue of pre-loved cassette releases over the last twelve months. They aren’t being snapped up just by young Londoners either: recently we shipped some hot metal in Twisted Sister’s Under The Blade and Mötley Crüe’s Shout At The Devil to a customer in The Tirol, whilst one lucky connection in Arizona grabbed the original 1981 edition of Spirit’s MOR classic Potatoland.

For them – and for us- the real pleasure of slotting a tape into a deck, hitting play and then hearing that reliable hiss will always be a thrill, whether the sound which comes out of the speakers is desert rock or Debussy. Having something to hold on to we reckon will never go out of style.

You can revel in cassette nostalgia HERE. Press Rec and PLAY

Cassette

1 comment

Anonymous

Anonymous

there are even new cassette players being launched: https://www.wearerewind.fr/

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