Taylor Swift’s new album comes on cassette. Who is buying those?

When Taylor Swift’s releases her new album, “Life of a Showgirl,” in October, it can be heard on the usual places, including streaming, vinyl and cassette tape?

The cassette tape was once one of the most common ways to listen to music, overtaking vinyl in the 1980s before being surpassed by CDs. But the physical audio format has become an artifact of a bygone era, giving way to the convenience of streaming.

Or, that’s what many thought.

In 2023, 436,400 cassettes were sold in the United States, according to the most recent data available from Luminate, an entertainment data firm.

Although that’s a far cry from the 440 million cassettes sold in the 1980s, it’s a sharp increase from the 80,720 cassettes sold in 2015 and a notable revival for a format that had been all but written off.

Charlie Kaplan, owner of online store Tapehead City says cassettes might not be experiencing the resurgence of vinyls or even CDs, but they are making a bit of a comeback, spurred by fans wanting an intimate experience with music and nostalgia, said.

Kaplan says people just like having something they can hold and keep, especially now when everything’s just a rented file on your phone.

Source: CNN