There is no hiding that physical copies of music are coming back, especially in the form of vinyl records. This article by The Independent reports a 26.8% increase in vinyl sales per year, which shows no signs of stopping as music artists offer vinyl editions of their albums. However, an overlooked physical form of music I have gotten into recently is cassettes.
I originally found that artists still offer cassette versions of their albums when I started perusing around on bandcamp.com, looking for different indie artists. Compared to buying a vinyl record, a cassette is usually more than half the cost to purchase, making it much easier on my student wallet. This billboard.com article reports an increase in cassette sales by 74% in 2016, which can be due in part to Guardians of the Galaxy bringing back the nostalgia of tapes to the music market. This increase in tape sales means that artists will start selling more cassettes in their albums, giving cassette lovers more options.
As biased as I am when it comes to tapes, I still think there are some drawbacks. For starters, decent equipment is very expensive. A decent cassette deck can run upwards of $120 compared to vinyl which has a more accessible equipment array, coming at a lower cost. Currently, in my possession, I have two Sony Walkman tape players, which play tapes very well, but sometimes I would just prefer to play them over speakers.
Additionally, the maintenance side of owning tapes and tape players becomes very tedious. Vinyl players are pretty basic and straightforward, with the only replacements being a record needle or a belt. Cassettes players, on the other hand, have to be religiously cleaned and demagnetized to prevent tapes from becoming damaged- in addition to many moving parts which have to be maintained. Also, any person who has owned tapes will tell you the woes of what it's like to have the film become unspooled out of a tape.
Taking the good with the bad, I would still argue that cassettes are a worthwhile investment. Since their increase in sales and accessibility, there is a wide range of genres to pick from now- even mainstream artists sell cassettes now. If you want to give tapes a try, I would say start with a Sony Walkman and a cassette from your favorite artist. You may find that you like the subtle distortions in pitch and the feeling of physical music in your hands. Don't miss this overlooked medium of music, because it is truly special.
