The audio cassette tape was invented in 1962 by the Belgian office of Dutch electronics giant Philips. For decades moving forward, consumers could choose to buy their favorite albums in either cassette or LP vinyl record format.
But with the advent of the Compact Disc (CD) in 1982, cassette tapes quickly died out and disappeared from stores. Fast forward to present day, and there is evidence that the cassette tape is making a bit of a comeback.
Due largely to nostalgia, cassette tapes have enjoyed a resurgence of sorts albeit not nearly as much as the boom in vinyl records. Up and coming musical acts are releasing cassette tapes as a way to differentiate themselves by offering a physical music medium rather than digital downloads.
Having said that, cassette tapes offer inferior sound quality to vinyl records and CDs in addition to being less user friendly given that they are tape-based and not digital but the retro factor is strong.
Cassette tape are available to buy both as recordable blanks and with music and spoken words on them. Let’s take a closer look at the history of the audio cassette and where they are being used currently.
Why has there been a resurgence of the cassette tape?
When COVID first led to a global lockdown in early 2020, musicians were unable to tour and perform publicly. Some smaller artists got the idea to produce cassette tapes of their music during the lockdowns as a way of making a bit of money with a retro technology while offering something other artists weren’t.
Cassette tapes can be produced fairly cost effectively in small runs and can be used in a variety of ways:
- They can be sold online, in stores or at live shows if the artist is touring.
- Cassettes can be given away as promotional tools by the artists.
- Cassettes can be given directly to fans either in contests or as giveaways.
- They can be given to radio stations to play or as a way of separating themselves from similar artists and creating a buzz that might otherwise not exist.
In fact several years earlier, smaller artists around the world had already gotten the idea to do this but COVID seemed to be the catalyst that got other artists doing it.
At the same time, people cooped up at home in quarantine began exploring things to do and feeling nostalgic for a kinder, safer time when cassettes, vinyl records, balloon pants and acid wash jeans were common.
Having said that, actual cassette sales are at this moment in time somewhat muted.
In the US, cassette sales are under 300,000 units per year and the UK it’s under 40,000.
So calling it a resurgence might be a bit strong once you crunch the numbers of actual cassette sales. While vinyl album sales in the US alone are approaching 28 million units yearly and have definitely experienced a rebirth of sorts, cassette tape sales in countries like the US and UK are much lower.
The future for cassette sales likely doesn’t have a lot of room to grow as the fact remains that cassette tapes are of inferior quality sound wise compared to digital format and both CDs and vinyl records. And of course you need to buy a tape player to buy listen to them.
But if we go back a bit in time, it is easy to see how and why cassette tapes did become so prevalent…
Cassette tape offered portability at a time when it was desired
There are a few key events and reasons that helped to grow the cassette tape market and enable it to stake a strong claim as the preferred medium by many music fans for several decades:
1966 – Invention of the Boom Box. The portable radio could be transported and either plugged in or used with batteries so your music was portable, as long as it involved the radio or the cassette tape deck i.e. not records.
1979 – Invention of the Sony Walkman. The Boom Box was big and bulky but the Walkman was small and could be clipped on your waist while walking or running. Again, only cassettes worked on the first Walkman designs for years before CDs became the norm.
1970s – 1990s in general – Cassette tapes were in direct competition with vinyl LPs as the medium of choice for all major music artists’ new releases. For many years, cassettes sold well because they were small and compact and now had multiple uses given the devices they could be used with. Blank tapes could be used by regular consumers for taping music or other sounds which vinyl records couldn’t.
Cassette tape decks were a popular car option
By 1982, car manufacturers had stopped installing outdated 8-track players and replaced them with cassette decks to play audio tapes. It very uncommon to sit in a car that didn’t have at least a radio and the cassette deck that normally came with it.
People could bring their music on the road and store cassettes in the glovebox and pass the time while driving with their favorite songs.
In 2010, the last car model eliminated the cassette deck as an option even though the cassette tape had really died decades earlier and was really only offered for nostalgic reasons by that time.
Audio cassette decks themselves then starting getting replaced by the Compact Disc player which was first offered in some 1985 car models. At that point the audio cassette was on borrowed time.
Cassette tape quirks and facts
- Cassette tapes move at a standard speed of 1 7/8″ per second.
- Blank cassette tapes are two-sided and both sides can be recorded on.
- Commercially recorded cassette tapes (i.e. albums) were typically black in color with a sticker that showed the song titles on each side although over time, clear plastic and multi-colored cassettes were used by artists.
- Blank cassette tapes were many different colors over the years as manufacturers tried to distinguish themselves. For the average person a blank cassette tape was fairly generic and basically a commodity.
- Commercially recorded cassettes (i.e. albums) were cut to length so that the amount of tape used was based on the total length of the album’s songs.
- Blank cassettes were marketed as offering various lengths of recording time with the letter C, MX or other manufacturer code added in front. Commonly, tapes were sold with names like C30, C60, C90 and C120 where the number represented the total length for the tape i.e. C60 = 60 total minutes of recording time or 30 minutes per side.
- In order to prevent accidentally taping over a cassette, cassette tapes have small removable plastic pieces on the side opposite of where the tape is visible. Removing these small pieces prevents you pressing the Record button and accidentally erasing what is on the tape.
Cassette tapes pros and cons
Prior to Compact Discs being introduced to the world in 1982, cassette tapes had taken a bite out of the market for Long Playing vinyl records and vinyl singles which for years had been the two formats music listeners had gravitated towards. Cassettes were smaller, more durable than records and very portable.
Cassette tapes were ideal for a wide variety of uses more so than LPs and since no one traveled around with a record player, cassettes added an element that vinyl simply couldn’t, as we’ll see below.
Here are the main pros and cons of cassette tapes.
| Cassette tapes pros | Cassette tapes cons |
| Portability. You can’t take a record with you but cassette tapes were used in cars, Walkmans, tape players, Boom Boxes and small cassette decks all of which could be taken with you on the go. | The sound quality is inferior to vinyl records. |
| Stop and start feature. When you turned a cassette player off or paused it, you could start the song or whatever you were listening to exactly where you left off. | Where are you going to buy a cassette player these days? You might get an old one online but what if it breaks? |
| Cheaper than vinyl. Back in the day, your favorite album on cassette usually cost about $1 less than your favorite vinyl version of the same album. | Over time, the tape will degrade and sound quality is lost with repeated use. |
| Retro factor. This is a big aspect of the current fascination with cassette tapes. They hearken back to a bygone era and offer a sense of nostalgia for those who used to own them and those who were born after cassettes had largely disappeared and are fascinated by how they work and sound. | Given that they operate with cassette tape, you can spend significant time rewinding and fast-forwarding to get to your favorite song. Unlike a record or CD. |
| Sight and touch. Unlike digital downloads and streamed music, a cassette tape is a physical object that can be touched and held, viewed and studied. The turning of the cassette player wheels as the tape moves can be pretty fascinating for someone who hasn’t seen it before. | The tape may get jammed in the cassette deck which could ruin it and lead to you having to replace it. |
| Recordability. You can record on blank cassette tapes. People commonly recorded music into mixtapes or even did voice tapes where they’d record themselves speaking and then send the tape to a distant friend or relative in lieu of writing a letter. | The tape could in some cases tear and rip which also renders the tape useless. |
| You could tape another tape. If you owned a Boom Box that had two tape decks, you could put a blank cassette in one deck and an album in the other and make a copy. You weren’t supposed to do it, but what else was a double cassette tape deck going to be used for? | If you ever used cassettes, you can remember at least one or ten occasions when you had to put a pencil in one of the wheels and manually wind the tape up when it got loose. |
| Better than 8 tracks. Cassettes were better than 8 tracks. That’s it. | Tape players generally only played one side. You then had to manually flip the cassette over to play the other. Same as records, but some record players allowed you to stack several records and automatically play them back to back. |
| Tape stuff off the radio. You could tape record a song off the radio on cassette and then use your Walkman to play it wherever you happened to be going. | Background noise and a hissing sound can be common when you try to record voice audio. |
Cassette singles
The Cassette Single or Cassingle was introduced in 1980 but didn’t really achieve commercial prominence in North America until 1987. It looked exactly like a regular cassette in every way to the naked eye.
The difference was that it contained less tape inside and typically only features one or two songs – singles – and was effectively created to replace the 45 as the medium of choice for hit single records. By the late 1980s, a cassette single would normally feature one song on each side and perhaps two versions (i.e. a remix) of the song.
Whereas a regular cassette album was sold in a small protective plastic box with album liner notes inside, the cassette single was usually sold with a cardboard sleeve that you’d remove to access the cassette.
Cassette singles never did replace the 45 and eventually disappeared. The thought of buying the same cassette with 2 songs that normally had a whole album of 8-10 songs on it didn’t make a lot of sense especially since the cassette single price was $2 – $3 and a whole album with 8 or more songs was usually $8 – $10.
When were cassette decks eliminated from cars as an option?
While most people weren’t purchasing cassette decks for their new cars once Compact Discs became the norm, the last model year that the cassette deck was even offered as an option for North American cars was 2010.
Having said that, given that CDs were introduced in 1982 and by the mid 1980s were seen as the future, the demise of the in-car tape deck occurred long before 2010. Many car companies had completely eliminated the tape deck option in a car long before the 2010 model year.
Once the CD became the chosen and accepted music medium, cassettes and vinyl records effectively received the same treatment that the 8 track had several decades earlier and were both put out to pasture.
Summary
Are audio cassette tapes making a comeback that might be considered sustainable? Its doubtful given that main reason that cassette tapes were eclipsed (by the Compact Disc) remains:
The sound quality is inferior to other music mediums and over time the quality of the cassette’s sound actually gets worse as the tape degrades with use.
While likely that the cassette could enjoy a slight resurgence for the near future, the fact that they don’t really offer anything of value beyond the retro factor means its commercial viability is relatively limited.
Given that very few companies actually produce cassette tapes, the cost to buy them will remain high, certainly more so than when cassettes were in their heyday and were known for being cheaply sold in packs of 5, 10 or more at discount rates. This enabled users to cheaply copy commercial albums on cassette or vinyl and share with their friends.