Cassettes are making a storming comeback

It’s been over 40 years since the first Sony Walkman hit the streets in Japan. The cassette phenomenon swept across the globe as a way of listening to beats on the go, finally entered the market! (Although carrying a stack of cassettes and spare batteries was still a bit of a hassle.)

By the 1970s, cassette tapes had become a popular way to listen to music. Their sale outpaced wax by the 1980s & new music continued to be released on cassettes up to the late 1990s. Thanks to their portability, cassettes freed drivers from radio dependency, allowing them to control their music playback.

Cassettes have not experienced the same resurgence in popularity that vinyl has seen in recent years, but they are still making a comeback. Vinyl has taken over CD sales in many areas & cassette sales are now starting to soar too.

Discogs is a popular platform for wanted vinyl. The site also features a cassette section, which has seen a big uplift in demand over the last year for WANTED rare cassettes.

Tapes aren’t a small business and have continued to drive positive sales since their demise and decrease in demand. The medium took a turn back into the mainstream with 2014′s Guardians of the Galaxy, in which Chris Pratt’s character listens to a mixtape of ’70s hits on his Walkman that’s his only connection to his mother. That soundtrack mix was issued on cassette and became a hit, as have three recent volumes of soundtrack tapes from the Netflix series Stranger Things.

Demand for vintage tape players is now also spiking. Some retro-style players reach anywhere between £20 and £150!

This is definitely a movement we can all get behind.