Cassette tapes embracing a surge in popularity
(CBS, KYMA/KECY) - Making someone a mixtape used to be a sign that you liked them. Well, let the audio love letters begin again as cassettes are making a comeback.
The portable, erasable, and inexpensive cassette tape created a pop culture movement in the 1980s, but now, cassette tape albums are seeing a surge in popularity in recent years, with a more than 400% increase in sales from 2015 to 2023.
Gen Z's are snapping up souvenir tapes at concerts.
Author Marc Masters says smaller labels are finding it cheaper and easier to sell tapes and cassettes afford artists flexibility as well.
"You can put different lengths on them, especially if you have music that's a little bit longer than conventional, if your songs are longer than five or ten minutes. There's something kind of more personal, more portable, more accessible about cassette tapes."
Marc Masters, Author, "High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape"
Even Taylor Swift is in on the cassette tape craze as two of her tapes were the best-selling cassette albums in 2023, according to Billboard.com.
