In 1989, when global annual sales of cassettes peaked at 83 million, people were listening to the Christmas number one, But Seriously... by Phil Collins, on their Sony Walkmans.
30 years later and surprisingly, after the CD has come and gone, as have MP3 files, and after a resurgence of vinyl, tape cassettes are on the up and up; and sales have been aided by the pandemic, not hindered.
In 2019, the U.K. recorded its highest sales in a decade,
with Wired reporting figures of 75,000 sold in the U.K. at the end of the year (up from the 50,000 sold in 2018). Billie Eilish’s debut album
When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? was the biggest release in the U.K., selling 4,000 copies. That same year, Bjork reissued her back catalogue of studio albums on stylish multi-colored limited edition cassettes.
That figure was trounced again in 2020–by the end of June, 65,000 cassettes were sold in the U.K.,
as reported by NME, which is a jump of 103% from the previous year. And according to the CEO of Mulann, the only EU producer of cassette tapes, sales have continued to rise throughout 2020 and into 2021.
This means figures are now reaching the last recent highs of 2004 when sales reached 100,000–when Scissor Sisters and Keane had the biggest selling albums,
as reported by The Guardian.
