Yes, we’re in the year 2018, and yes, cassettes are still a thing. Hard as it may seem to believe, people are still paying money to listen to compact audio tapes in the digital age, despite the fact that VHS tapes went the way of the dodo many years ago.
And not only are people still buying cassettes, but they’re buying them in bulk, apparently. That’s because last year, no fewer than 174,000 cassette albums were sold, a 35% increase from the 129,000 sold in 2016. This information came from Nielsen Holdings’ 2017 end of year report, although you’ll need to fill out a form before you can view it.
The Hollywood Reporter also featured a list of the bestselling individual cassettes of 2017, and you probably won’t be surprised to know that the top three are all variations of the various soundtracks of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise, which sold a combined total of 39,000 copies. Coming in at number four is the Stranger Things soundtrack, which is hardly surprising, given the enormous success of Netflix’s sci-fi/horror phenomenon, and from there, the list consists of albums by established artists, including Eminem, and Kanye West, and the late Prince.
Although they’ve been around since 1962, cassettes clearly aren’t ready to bite the dust just yet. At this rate, it looks like they’re also going to enjoy strong sales throughout 2018, so we can probably expect cassettes to stay around for years to come.
Some of the coverage you find on Cultured Vultures contains affiliate links, which provide us with small commissions based on purchases made from visiting our site. We cover gaming news, movie reviews, wrestling and much more.
