Cassette tapes make unexpected comeback in era of music streaming
Stephanie Sy:
Maral's first project in 2019 was released solely on cassette, and the 200 copies sold out instantly.
While her music may be experimental, cassettes couldn't be more old-school. They became popular in the '70s and '80s, an alternative to vinyl. Compact discs had overtaken both formats by the early 1990s. But the emergence of digitized music and streaming services has eclipsed them all.
Yet cassette tapes are having a moment. According to Luminate, an entertainment industry data collector, U.S. tape sales increased by more than 440 percent between 2015 and 2022. In the past few years, mainstream artists like Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and Taylor Swift have all capitalized on the fad.
It's a resurgence similar to that of vinyl records, albeit on a much smaller scale. There's only a handful of cassette manufacturers left in the U.S. One of them is Nick Keshishian, who still has the original equipment he used when cassette tapes were in their heyday.
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