The Cassette Tape comes back
Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 7:23 pm
Stats no hype.
Cassette tape sales growth is up 100%+ year over year.
However cassette sales account for less than 1% of total sales.
Current duplication cost (qty 100) is ~$3.00 each (case & card cover extra).
"According to British Phonographic Industry figures, 156,542 cassettes were sold in the UK last year, the highest figure since 2003 and an increase of 94.7% on 2019 sales. Seemingly out of the blue, global pop icons such as Lady Gaga, the 1975, and Dua Lipa have started rushing out their new releases on cassette – and they’re selling out."
"With an increase of 130% since the 2016 holiday season, a total of 26,699 cassette tapes were sold during the 2017 holiday season. According to media metrics firm BuzzAngle, cassette tape sales are up 136.1% from 2016 to 2017. According to Nielsen Music, 2017 saw the sale of 14.3 million vinyl LPs in the US alone. The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band accounted for 72,000 of those sales. "
"For Glasgow’s indie and punk bands, as with today’s independent artists, cassettes actually represented a cost-effective means of providing a physical product, far cheaper than pressing a vinyl record and printing sleeves and packaging. As one label owner put it, “we tend to release on tape because it’s cheap to manufacture, it’s easy to recoup, and it leaves money left over for the bands to get something”."
"5SOS’s latest album CALM sold 12,000 cassettes in its first week. This feat makes it the fastest-selling cassette in 18 years."
" The BPI says cassettes have accounted for just 0.2 per cent of album sales in the year to date, versus a much more respectable 12 per cent for vinyl"
"The biggest cassette release in the UK for January to July 2019 is a pop release, Billie Eilish’s debut album When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? with 4,000 sales of the ‘Exclusive Black Cassette.’ Second is Catfish and The Bottlemen’s The Balance, on 3,000 cassette sales, with Madonna’s Madame Xat no.3, Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent at four and Hozier’s Wasteland Baby rounding out the top five. Last year’s bestseller was The 1975’s A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships which sold 7,523 copies, most in the first week of release."
"Music database and marketplace Discogs found that cassettes made up 6 per cent of releases logged by the community in 2018 with digital on 9 per cent, CDs on 33 per cent and vinyl making up 49 per cent. In 2019, the most popular cassette genres on the platform are rock (27,771), pop (14,310), electronic (12,434) and folk, world and country (10,878) with classical, stage and screen, reggae and even brass and military all making an appearance. "
"Sales in the U.S. grew 23% in 2018, according to Nielsen Music, with 219,000 tapes sold in 2018 compared with 178,000 in 2017, Pitchfork reported. That was after a 35% increase in 2017. In the U.K., sales were up 112% year-on-year in the first half of 2019, even if that means only 36,000 cassettes were sold."
"British company GPO Retro, which makes items ranging from record players to phones, developed an 80s-inspired “Brooklyn boombox” that looks not unlike the one John Cusack holds aloft at the end of cult 80s film Say Anything, after noting strong sales of its shoebox-style tape recorder. GPO’s managing director, Gary Basso said: “We have probably sold around 17,000 units in the past year that incorporated a cassette player, which is about three times as much as the previous year. The people buying them are aged anywhere between 25 and over 60.”
"Cassette Store Day was founded in London by a group of labels in 2013, Blak Hand Records (UK) and Side-B Creations (JP). What happend to Cassette Store Day? Due to the serious allegations surrounding Burger Records, Cassette Store Day (CSD) 2020, has been cancelled. You can see the official statement here from CSD UK https://cassettestoredayuk.com. Cassette Week is run by Tapehead City. https://www.cassetteweek.com Where can i press tapes? We recommend National Audio Company & Duplication.ca for all cassette duplication needs. "
Cassette Week 2020
https://youtu.be/HZ6_7wtF6Cw
“If sharks can have a week, then cassettes should get one too”
— Charlie Tapes
Cassette tape sales growth is up 100%+ year over year.
However cassette sales account for less than 1% of total sales.
Current duplication cost (qty 100) is ~$3.00 each (case & card cover extra).
"According to British Phonographic Industry figures, 156,542 cassettes were sold in the UK last year, the highest figure since 2003 and an increase of 94.7% on 2019 sales. Seemingly out of the blue, global pop icons such as Lady Gaga, the 1975, and Dua Lipa have started rushing out their new releases on cassette – and they’re selling out."
"With an increase of 130% since the 2016 holiday season, a total of 26,699 cassette tapes were sold during the 2017 holiday season. According to media metrics firm BuzzAngle, cassette tape sales are up 136.1% from 2016 to 2017. According to Nielsen Music, 2017 saw the sale of 14.3 million vinyl LPs in the US alone. The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band accounted for 72,000 of those sales. "
"For Glasgow’s indie and punk bands, as with today’s independent artists, cassettes actually represented a cost-effective means of providing a physical product, far cheaper than pressing a vinyl record and printing sleeves and packaging. As one label owner put it, “we tend to release on tape because it’s cheap to manufacture, it’s easy to recoup, and it leaves money left over for the bands to get something”."
"5SOS’s latest album CALM sold 12,000 cassettes in its first week. This feat makes it the fastest-selling cassette in 18 years."
" The BPI says cassettes have accounted for just 0.2 per cent of album sales in the year to date, versus a much more respectable 12 per cent for vinyl"
"The biggest cassette release in the UK for January to July 2019 is a pop release, Billie Eilish’s debut album When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? with 4,000 sales of the ‘Exclusive Black Cassette.’ Second is Catfish and The Bottlemen’s The Balance, on 3,000 cassette sales, with Madonna’s Madame Xat no.3, Lewis Capaldi’s Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent at four and Hozier’s Wasteland Baby rounding out the top five. Last year’s bestseller was The 1975’s A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships which sold 7,523 copies, most in the first week of release."
"Music database and marketplace Discogs found that cassettes made up 6 per cent of releases logged by the community in 2018 with digital on 9 per cent, CDs on 33 per cent and vinyl making up 49 per cent. In 2019, the most popular cassette genres on the platform are rock (27,771), pop (14,310), electronic (12,434) and folk, world and country (10,878) with classical, stage and screen, reggae and even brass and military all making an appearance. "
"Sales in the U.S. grew 23% in 2018, according to Nielsen Music, with 219,000 tapes sold in 2018 compared with 178,000 in 2017, Pitchfork reported. That was after a 35% increase in 2017. In the U.K., sales were up 112% year-on-year in the first half of 2019, even if that means only 36,000 cassettes were sold."
"British company GPO Retro, which makes items ranging from record players to phones, developed an 80s-inspired “Brooklyn boombox” that looks not unlike the one John Cusack holds aloft at the end of cult 80s film Say Anything, after noting strong sales of its shoebox-style tape recorder. GPO’s managing director, Gary Basso said: “We have probably sold around 17,000 units in the past year that incorporated a cassette player, which is about three times as much as the previous year. The people buying them are aged anywhere between 25 and over 60.”
"Cassette Store Day was founded in London by a group of labels in 2013, Blak Hand Records (UK) and Side-B Creations (JP). What happend to Cassette Store Day? Due to the serious allegations surrounding Burger Records, Cassette Store Day (CSD) 2020, has been cancelled. You can see the official statement here from CSD UK https://cassettestoredayuk.com. Cassette Week is run by Tapehead City. https://www.cassetteweek.com Where can i press tapes? We recommend National Audio Company & Duplication.ca for all cassette duplication needs. "
Cassette Week 2020
https://youtu.be/HZ6_7wtF6Cw
“If sharks can have a week, then cassettes should get one too”
— Charlie Tapes