Vinyl is experiencing a huge resurgence. We all know this. But a rising tide lifts all ships and it has actually spawned renewed interest in other old-school audio formats as well, including CDs and, maybe a bit more surprisingly, classic cassette tapes.
The heyday of classic cassette tapes was really in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s โ before the emergence of CDs really snuffed them out โ and they became super popular because they were really the first portable audio format. Largely thanks to the boombox (first released in 1966) and the iconic Sony Walkman (first released in 1979), cassette tapes allowed you to listen to music outside your home and wherever you like.
In additional to being portable, cassette tapes were really popular because they were affordable; the average price of an album on a cassette tape was about $10. Plus cassette tapes played a warm and imperfect sound that analog audio from reel-to-reel and vinyl is known for (even if the audio quality of a cassette tape is considerably worse). It also provided a similar mechanical and tactile experience. It’s a format that you have touch to experience
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Where to Buy Cassette Tapes and Players Today
In 2022, it’s actually not that difficult to buy cassette tapes. They are still being made and they are still very much in pop culture’s zeitgeist thanks to being featured in hit shows and movies like Stranger Things and Guardians of the Galaxy. Also, a lot of labels and recording artists are still releasing cassette tapes. For example, if you go on the websites of many of today’s most popular artists โ including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, The Weeknd, Billie Eilish, Selena Gomez and many others โ they are selling cassette tapes of their latest albums.
And as far as older albums are concerned, you can find cassette tapes of those as well. There are certain albums that are significantly rarer than others, of course โ just like with vinyl โ but you find a lot of old school albums on vintage audio shots, online specialty stores (such as Tape Head City or The Cassette Place) and online marketplaces like eBay, Amazon, Sweetwater or Craigslist.