Sales of Cassette Tapes Have Quietly Grown 136.1% In the Past Year

[tripplej]

Hard to believe but Cassette tapes are back!

from digitalmusicnews

"According to media metrics firm BuzzAngle, cassette tape sales are up 136.1% from 2016 to 2017."

=======

I wonder if Cassette players are even available.. I got rid of mine and the tapes long ago..

 

[Tony V.]

eBay has lots of them and Ive seen many on Kijiji
Ive still got 3 at home all high end as I just could not part with them even though I hardly ever use them.

 

[tripplej]

Everything old is new again.. lol..

I wonder if 8 track will come back..

Great, you kept your old tape players. I had a few back in the day but all gone now..

 

[Tony V.]

8-Track was a painful format, Cant believe it was even created. Having a song fade out when it had to switch tracks and then fade back in was so dumb

 

[tripplej]

lol.. I guess some items should just be left behind..

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Yeah tapes are long dead for me. The fidelity of tape was never better than any competing format, even bad digital for me. I even had a used Nakamichi 3 head deck at one point.

I've heard these are coming back, but I just can't see why. With records there are a ton of reasons to justify their popularity. Records can't be made louder like CD's can, so most records (even though the format is technically inferior) frequently has more dynamic range than their digital counterparts. The distortion they produce is of the benign low even order type. Their response naturally tilts more in line with the preferred room response. The artwork is cool. There are many records not available on CD or any other way.

Pretty much all of that is not true of cassettes. Their dynamic range was more restricted than either format. They suffered worse wow and flutter than record players (by the end of record player technology, or as compared to today). They have more noise. They have a more restricted frequency response. There are far less available on cassette than record or cd. They don't really have cool artwork the way records did.

Cassettes just aren't cool anymore with, in my opinion, no real redeeming qualities. This is a trend I don't get at all.

 

[tripplej]

I have a strong feeling it is just nostalgia. The peak is now but after a year or so, it will fade away..

 

[Matthew J Poes]

I have a strong feeling it is just nostalgia. The peak is now but after a year or so, it will fade away..

I hope so, haha. The chemicals used in tape manufacturing were unpleasant to say the least.

 

[Tony V.]

I think as long as Gaurdians of the galaxy is around tapes will remain popular, I'm sure that was the cause in the spike in popularity

 

[tripplej]

Guardians of the Galaxy was indeed the source for this resurgences.

 

[Matthew J Poes]

Hah that's too funny.

 

[tripplej]