Published
Fri, May 5, 2023, 14:00
- We spoke to labels and fans about the beloved format and why it's enjoying a 20-year sales high.
Sales of cassette tapes are at a 20-year high, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to a huge spike in interest, with sales doubling from 80,000 in 2019 to 160,000 in 2020, the BPI reports. Sales also increased for the tenth consecutive year in 2022, rising from 3,823 in 2012 to more than 195,000 last year.
Similarly to vinyl, this increase is largely due to new releases by major pop and rock acts such as Harry Styles and The Arctic Monkeys. But the electronic music community has also been feeling the surge, particularly since the start of the pandemic.
Cooper Bowman runs Melbourne label Altered States Tapes, which has put out more than 150 cassettes since 2010. Speaking to Resident Advisor, he said he "produces everything relatively cheaply at home," which allows him to keep prices low at around $8 (AUS) per tape.
"AST continues a legacy of punk/experimental labels operating on the fringes, liberated from demands of the music industry," he said. "I buy the blanks, dub a master, duplicate them in my shed, then make art on my photocopier before mailing the tapes around the world."
The downside of the pandemic sales spike has been the subsequent rise in international postage costs. Most of AST's orders are overseas, and sending a single cassette today can cost anything between $15 and $26.
That said, Bowman believes lower production costs overall make releasing tapes a cash cow for labels looking to jump on the bandwagon. "It's an economically viable plan B as it allows labels to catch up on the backlog of orders generated by Covid-19," he said. "It was never a plan B for me. But it's good to buy tapes, support a label or artist and plug the aux cord to a walkman and listen to them."
Jamie Burke, who runs Glasgow label Are You Before, agreed the appeal is "almost entirely driven by the financial aspect"–both as a label owner and fan. "I could do four separate cassette runs for the cost of one vinyl run," he said. "The odds are increasingly stacked against you financially as a label and releasing things frequently and cheaply is a huge advantage–even if fewer people own cassette players. Starting a new label and testing the water with tapes was a no-brainer."
According to Burke, tapes also mean greater creative freedom. "Popularity isn't strictly the measure of good music and it means we can take more chances when releasing something different without the threat of losing thousands of pounds," he said.
Not only is manufacturing vinyl costly, it can also take a long time. This, coupled with a personal rediscovery of cassettes during lockdown, inspired Optimo Music's Keith Mcivor, AKA JD Twitch, to launch a monthly tape series featuring mostly his own music.
"At that point, turnaround times on manufacturing vinyl had gone crazy," he told RA, "while for tapes, this was extremely short and also cheaper to make and post out." He said he was "blown away by the demand and struggled to keep up" because he was publishing "on a very DIY basis."
French zine publishers Shelter Press also reported selling out small, 300-unit runs "almost immediately." Bartolomé Sanson, who runs the label alongside Félicia Atkinson, said he resonated with the creative process because it felt very similar to zine publishing.
"It's the only format that allows you to start a small label without money in your pocket," he told RA. "It's like producing a book with a Xerox machine at a small shop round the corner–something I hope will continue to exist for the longest time."
Musician and visual artist Graham Coventry is a long-term collector of ghetto blasters and tapes. "I've loved the different case designs that have come and gone over the years," he told RA. For him, sellotape repair jobs and using a pencil to rewind or fast-forward are all part of the experience.
"The best thing about tapes is the ability to make cut-up mixtapes," he added. "On a double cassette deck you can record small break samples and quickly press pause at the right time then record a completely different break. You can't do that with records."
Read the BPI report in full.
Photo credit: Graham Coventry