Cassette Tapes Are Getting a Boost From an Unexpected Source

Not long after, analog fans began clamoring for another old format: cassette tapes. Although the resurgence of tapes didn’t totally surprise LaRue, the people seeking them out did. “There are some older folks who buy cassettes here,” he says, “but I’d say the majority is younger people.” For Generation Z, it’s partly a bit of secondhand nostalgia. But also, because it has lower reproduction costs and DIY cachet, emerging artists have embraced the format for smaller releases.

Cassettes remain an important format for mainstream acts as well. In its first week of sales, Taylor Swift’s sold 1.64 million physical units, according to : 759,500 CDs, 859,000 vinyl LPs and about 21,500 cassettes.

No matter how modest, physical units still weigh heavily in how the music industry generates charts. During a conference in the UK, Dave Rowntree, the drummer for Blur, said the band’s 2023 album, , sold 3,000 cassettes in its first week, against “tens of millions of streams on Spotify alone—but the cassette sales had a bigger impact on our chart position.”

@jocean breaks down the cassette comeback https://t.co/kRp8rDyeKc pic.twitter.com/CoVhOKpaVb

There’s another, even more important reason the likes of Billie Eilish and Kendrick Lamar are still releasing music on cassette, and that’s to satisfy the insatiable desires of superfans. When Dua Lipa posted animated GIFs of herself playfully holding the cassette version of her album , she was targeting her most ardent fans, who are willing to spend more than the average listener to own albums on physical formats.

The format’s lower production costs don’t hurt either, and these savings are reflected in retail prices. New releases on vinyl often cost as much as $35, whereas a cassette provides a similar analog experience for as low as $10. It may be lower fidelity, but it’s also more playful and more portable.

“It’s a really nice price point for young kids who want to collect a physical item to support their favorite artists but don’t want to buy a $30 or $40 record,” says Shelly Worcel, director of physical account strategy for Secretly Distribution. “One of our bestsellers last year was Phoebe Bridgers, because she tends to have a younger audience.”

The trend toward tapes began with shows and films, including and , which has an extended bit featuring a Sony TPS-L2 Walkman owned by the main character, Peter Quill. During the pandemic, it was goosed along when rising demand for vinyl, coupled with supply chain backlogs at pressing plants, caused artists and fans to turn to tapes to make up the difference, says Andy Osborn, the artist and label operations manager for music platform Bandcamp.

Last year music industry sales tracker Luminate Data LLC tallied cassette sales of 436,400 units, about the same as 2022. That’s still a long way from 1988, when 450 million were sold in the US, but it’s up from the 81,000 sold in 2015. It’s enough interest to attract entrepreneurs.

Romain Boudruche, a former advertising copywriter, read an article about the -inspired spike in demand for vintage Walkmans and realized there was an opening in the market for a stylishly updated portable cassette deck. After a successful 2020 Kickstarter, he and partner Matthieu Mazières began selling players under the name We Are Rewind in late 2022. Guangzhou FiiO Electronics Technology Co., a Chinese audio company, entered the “retro products” market in March with the CP13.

The economics have changed, but the idiosyncratic sound quality hasn’t, and that remains key to the cassette’s appeal. Rod Thomas, who’s opened for the likes of Cher and Elton John as Bright Light Bright Light, is issuing an edition of his latest album on cassette, as he’s done with all his previous releases. Even more than the physical format itself, he likes the sound quality of tapes, which he says “feels like squinting. It’s one step away from your ears. It’s a really warm sound.”

Even audiophiles such as LaRue are embracing tape’s hiss and warble. He’s a partner in Austin’s Equipment Room, a high-fidelity listening bar in the Hotel Magdalena. The sound system features vintage Technics direct drive turntables, Klipsch speakers, coveted McIntosh amplifiers and a Nakamichi cassette deck from 1975.

“While we’re setting up for the night or breaking down, we’ll put a tape on—Blood, Sweat & Tears or Tower of Power. It’s fun,” LaRue says. The deck is also used to record sets as souvenirs for the DJs who play there.

A surprise bestseller at Breakaway has been blank tapes. “Obviously, anyone can make a Spotify playlist,” LaRue says. “The idea of curating a little music selection is not new, but I think the idea of doing it on a physical format is appealing to people. There are young people buying blank cassettes and making mixtapes, like I did when I was 20.”

THE TALE OF THE TAPE

Sony sold more than 200 million Walkman cassette players between the device’s introduction in 1979 and its discontinuation in the US in 2010. A small crop of brands has arisen to take its place. Here are three favorites.

NEW AND IMPROVEDLike the first-generation Walkman, the We Are Rewind player is crisply rectangular and slightly smaller than a paperback book. Unlike the original, it has a rechargeable battery and Bluetooth 5.1 for wireless listening. There’s also an output jack for wired headphones (sold separately) and an input jack for recording mixtapes. The aluminum-bodied player comes in orange, blue, gray and, most recently, black-and-yellow. All are puckishly packaged with a small pencil for reeling in unspooled tapes.

A SOUND BUYFiiO’s CP13 has the same blocky design as We Are Rewind’s player, but without the recording or Bluetooth functions. Available in red, white or blue, it’s got a slightly brighter, punchier sound and a 13-hour battery life. At less than 5 inches long, it’s somewhat more pocketable than We Are Rewind’s, which is almost an inch longer.

A CLEAR CHOICERetrospekt’s CP-81 has essentially the same dimensions as the CP13, but its transparent plastic body cuts down on weight: It clocks in at 7.7 oz, including its two AA batteries, compared with 11 oz for the FiiO and 14 oz for the We Are Rewind. Like the latter, the CP-81 can record. It also comes with a pair of orange-padded, wired Koss headphones.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.