When you walk into a record store, the cassette section (yes, record stores have cassette sections again) won’t be just filled with old cassettes, but rather freshly shrink-wrapped albums from the past week. A format that was once considered a thing of the past and the reason album sales declined—due to the ease of pirating music—has been slowly making its way back along with the vinyl revival. Cassette sales are up, and 2023 is predicted to be an even bigger year for the format.
But why are cassettes back? Huge artists like Taylor Swift and The Weeknd have released cassette versions of their current and previous albums. Movies and TV shows like Guardians of the Galaxy, 13 Reasons Why, and Stranger Things have also had cassettes centered as a major prop. All these factors have helped introduce the format to a young, curious generation of music buyers. Those familiar with the format may consider cassettes to be low-fidelity but, as with vinyl, the quality of your listening experience depends on the equipment you use to play your music. Finding the right equipment is a little more difficult for cassettes, as the industry continues to catch up with the format’s return. Everything you need to know about starting (or restarting) your cassette collection in 2023 is at the 🔗 in our bio.
