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.
There are a number of collectors and enthusiasts who enjoy alternative types of media. It was an experience listening to music on tape and hearing the hiss of the tape. It has a different sound to it, sort of like vinyl.
If there’s money to be made, they’ll find ways to get it. If that means selling tapes, they’ll sell tapes again. Records are still back in style and being mass produced again.
Wait until this guy hears about a certain genre called black metal…
Record collectors mostly and obsessed fans. Vinyls and CDs may have done a comeback back, still are expensive.
There is a large subset of hipster types who are notalgic for VHS, cassette, film and early digital cameras.
It’s because of ‘vibes’. It makes them feel different, special, more important than the ‘normies’ listening to stuff on Spotify, watching stuff on Netflix, or using iphones for photography. They think it’s more ‘authentic’, ‘analog’, etc.
Yes, they are insufferable people to be around. I grew up with Cassettes and VHS. It sucked balls. I vastly prefer my 4K streaming and high bit rate audio. But I understand that for younger people or hipster types, the ‘retro’ aspect is super appealing and it makes them feel special. I have several friends like this over the years and they love to go on long rants about how superior they are for this stuff and how ignorant the Spotified masses are.
me. i am buying those.
fun nostalgia. it’s physical, tactile, the sounds that come along with a physical cassette. and yes, the audio is imperfect, but that’s part of the experience and charm.
i already have lossless digital files. this is a different experience.
I’ve seen various artists selling those on bandcamp, and they’re often sold out
nostalgic audiophiles
You’d be surprised.
As a matter of fact, many well known and famous artists have been releasing dbrwnd new albums on old media for years and years.
For example I have a casset of 10000 days by tool.
I’m also an idiot audiophile with a stereo that’s way way too expensive for my own good. (I’m not rich but I am broke.)
I swear to God I can hear a difference and theres all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings when I put a casset in.
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.
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.
Collectors? Idiots?
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.
I mean, most vinyl snobs I know… that’s the point. It’s a way to signify how ‘hardcore’ they are about music because they spend the money/time/space on it. That their listening inexpressive is ‘more authentic and real’ than me listening to spotify in my car. It’s a form of conspicuous consumption.
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.
Cassettes don’t sound too bad if you actually have good equipment, which most people nowadays don’t (because most can’t afford collector’s prices for decent decks). I was born in 97, vinyl records were long dead by then. Most people who get into vinyl nowadays actually grew up with iPods (hence the term “fake nostalgia”).
On a solid system, there’s a lot more fidelity in the bass on vinyl.
Eh… it’s pretty much all down to mastering, but vinyl records have a limited dynamic range compared to CDs which makes the bass more pronounced maybe? Not something I’ve noticed but I tend to prefer clear high end and mid range anyway.
Digital fidelity (sample rate) grows more granular in higher frequencies because that’s easier for us to distinguish. (See the Fletcher-Munson Curve from Bell Labs: on a bell curve, we hear best at the frequency of a baby crying.) Think of stair steps that get closer and more numerous over time. That’s a representation of the resolution of the sound across frequencies from low to high. I may be explaining it poorly because I moved away from audio engineering toward a different career a long time ago.
Analog has all the information that’s missing in between the larger, wider steps. It’s not a placebo (didn’t say you called it that). It’s how digital audio works.
My instance isn’t allowing me to upload images for some reason. It had extended downtime the other day, so maybe that’s related. Anyway, here’s a link to a page with a chart that illustrates what I’m attempting to describe.
Thanks, it’s always great to hear the details from some guy who knows his shit
Also, old records (from early in the CD era) had nowhere near the fidelity of modern records. I played a modern record for my father once and he was astounded how far they’ve come.
In my experience, it’s still pretty hit or miss. The smaller indie labels tend to get it right more than the big names.
What does fake nostalgia mean?
it makes nostalgia for something that never existed.
there is plenty of it for say medieval history. our fantasy conception of medieval times… is mostly completely false/fake.
or take the concept of the ‘noble savage’ as if cavemen are morally pure being or something. complete nonsense.
And yet people believe these things are legit and real.
I don’t think it’s actually a real term, but I kinda mean that it’s nostalgic to people who can’t really have nostalgia for it because they’re too young to have experienced it being the main music format.
I’ve heard it called “Borrowed nostalgia” before.
Ah. That makes sense.
Swift is a billionaire. She did not become a billionaire by releasing her albums in single formats. Streaming, cds, multiple collector editions in vinyl and now cassettes. Agree writes music to appeal to the most people possible and then creates as many different sources for her fans to give her money as she can.
she make her money from concerts and licensing fees. not music sales
most artists income these days comes from concerts. music sales aren’t money makers anymore the way they used to be.
I don’t like touch screens, or screens in general. I miss Minidisc so much. It was and is the absolute best for me.
The iPod with the click wheel would be my next choice but they’re too expensive now. CD cases were cumbersome, and when lined up it’s hard to read the spines. They skip too when I’m walking.
I’d go back to cassettes again if they were released to the same standard as back in the day (Dolby NR, etc). I like handling the cases and they look better lined up on a shelf.
I saw a bunch in Japan, along with Vinyl and CD, even saw some 8-track in Tower Records.
