It sort of happened with the LP (“vinyl” if you’re under 40). It sort of happened with the 8-track tape. Now it’s sort of happening with the cassette. Old sound recording formats never truly disappear (even cylinder phonographs are still occasionally manufactured and recorded upon), but it’s rare for one to make a partial comeback. The early 90s saw a surprising rise in the number of LP records (you know, those 12″ diameter vinyl records), and I for one was skeptical that the fad would last. But it did, and sales really took off around 2007, rising from about a million records sold that year to almost 17 million in 2018. [Update: 18.4 million in 2019*] That’s about two million units less than CD sales (these figures are for the U.S. only, and historically, sales by format in non-U.S. can be significantly different). But most music (and when we’re talking about sales of audio recordings, we’re mainly talking about music sales) is sold today via streaming audio service subscriptions, and it’s difficult to make an “apples to apples” comparison between LP or CD sales and the total market. However, the Recording Industry Association of America estimates that LP and EP* sales constitute just 4.3% of the total market. CDs are not faring much better, holding on to just 7.1% of total sales. So where do cassettes fit in? According to The Guardian newspaper, “it’s cool to spool again” [protip: it’s not] and “sales are soaring.” The reality is that they have “soared” to about 50,000 units in the UK (the RIAA doesn’t rank them at all for the US market). Things could go the way of the vinyl LP, where for many years sales remained low but steady, or this might just be a short-lived fad. The cassette format was certainly appealing in its day, and as a DIY format it offers a flexibility that the LP never did. But the sound quality that LP fans tout is really just not there. Still, there are budget priced recorder/players still out there on the market; Pyle audio still offers a cassette deck that probably sounds about as good as the mid-priced gear we had back in the 80s. And new cassettes are still available, although if you want the highest quality sound, you will probably have to resort to buying new old stock Cr02 or “metal” tapes on Ebay. Further, some labels and groups are issuing releases on cassette in small batches. Is the cassette comeback going to be as big as the return of vinyl? Doubtful.

*EP = “extended play singles,” usually defined as 12″ or 10″ vinyl phonograph records with one or a few songs per side.