U.S. Cassette Album Sales Rose 35% in 2017

Megalith

Megalith

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The latest year-end report from Nielsen is showing that cassette albums had their best year since 2012, with 174,000 copies sold. Leading the charge was the second Guardians of the Galaxy film’s companion album, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2.

Still, cassettes remain an incredibly niche format, as they only comprised 0.10 percent of all album sales in 2017, and just 0.17 percent of physical album sales. That said, comparatively, in 2009, 2010 and 2011, cassette album sales numbered just 34,000; 21,000 and 31,000; respectively.
 
The number was bolstered by some movie merchandise. I'm sure it will see a similar bump when guardians 3 is released in a few years.

I'll wager that 90% of the people that bought tapes didn't even open them.

That being said, let us all pray that the floppy disk doesn't make a comeback. Still remember my father parking me in front for a few hours at a time to install various pieces of software that came on floppies.
 
Too bad at the end of the second movie he gets a ZUNE. A fucking Zune. Like that was ever popular enough to warrant having out. Not the ever popular iPod, but fucking Zune. How much did Microsoft pay to have that put in? Or, they could have just stuck with the cassette tape. Hell if someone went back to Earth they'll find out about the internet and all the wonderful loli, let alone all the wonderful music you can stream.

 
dangerouseddy said:
I thought all the cassette tape manufacturers had closed down even the Chinese ones.
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Last year there was one left in the US with limited tape stock, was watching a video about them, not sure if they are still around.
 
Just wait until they sucker people into wanting these again.

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DukenukemX said:
Too bad at the end of the second movie he gets a ZUNE. A fucking Zune. Like that was ever popular enough to warrant having out. Not the ever popular iPod, but fucking Zune. How much did Microsoft pay to have that put in? Or, they could have just stuck with the cassette tape. Hell if someone went back to Earth they'll find out about the internet and all the wonderful loli, let alone all the wonderful music you can stream.

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The question is: Did Microsoft even pay for that? They don't even make the product anymore so it's tough to see a financial upside to it.
 
Azphira said:
Just wait until they sucker people into wanting these again.
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A buddy of mine has the big full size console version of one of these. It's neat as shit. It was passed down from his family.
 
Who in the fuck...?! It’s not even like a cassette has advantages over any modern standard. At least Vinyl has a more concrete relation to the history of audio distribution.
DukenukemX said:
Too bad at the end of the second movie he gets a ZUNE. A fucking Zune. Like that was ever popular enough to warrant having out. Not the ever popular iPod, but fucking Zune. How much did Microsoft pay to have that put in?
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Might not actually be Microsoft. The Zune had its proponents and popularity, and the Zune HD released as well. They were capable media players with excellent quality, but it’s hard to break into a dominated market. Your reaction is pretty indicative actually. During that time frame iPods were arguably quite worse than Zunes but they were established, so who would want to get a zune instead.
 
Jesus Christ. There is NOTHING about cassettes in terms of audio quality that make it better than Records or digital audio (including CDs for the idiots that don't know).

Anyone shilling VHS and Cassettes are just hipsters.

Hell, even straight up film video equals are bests digital movies. There are a reason to use records and film... ZERO reason for cassettes and vhs.

Let them die.
 
I bet I could find about 10 old cassette players from the pawnshops and a few repair shops in NY. I need to get a few and sell them on ebay. There cant be a lot of 'new" cassette players around. 174 thousand cassettes sold but no way to play them. Quick profit!
 
if u wanna have a "good" time.. try finding the service manual for a Sony ES dual cassette tape deck and change all the belts on one.. good times...

not at all super irritating.. I did this once for a friend of mine.. I managed to get it done, but I was super irritated by the time I was done.


I grew up with these things .... trying to remember it set the counter so you can find the song you like.. then discovering that section of the tape had degraded because you'd played it too much.. and then you portable tape deck deciding to eat the tape (mostly because you hadn't maintained it properly)... good times..

I honestly don't have much nostalgia for cassette tapes or VHS... nope kinda crap really.
 
Retronym said:
Cassettes are great for storing bitcoin keys.
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...you might start some 'new wave' excitement for data storage cassette players. Not since apple 2 and tandy computers have they been much in conversation. And the interesting part is, you have a point. <tongue in cheek> but a bit (npi) serious. Only if some could be found. Tapes and cd are still being used for mass data storage. Tape isnt dead yet for storage, music is slightly building back from the dead.
 
Nolan7689 said:
Who in the fuck...?! It’s not even like a cassette has advantages over any modern standard. At least Vinyl has a more concrete relation to the history of audio distribution.

Might not actually be Microsoft. The Zune had its proponents and popularity, and the Zune HD released as well. They were capable media players with excellent quality, but it’s hard to break into a dominated market. Your reaction is pretty indicative actually. During that time frame iPods were arguably quite worse than Zunes but they were established, so who would want to get a zune instead.
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I've used the Zune HD in the past and I thought the interface was slick and responsive. It's another one of those things that Microsoft made well, but didn't advertise or support enough. It's funny since the gui they got from Xerox and we all know that story. They definitely need better management.
 
Nolan7689 said:
Who in the fuck...?! It’s not even like a cassette has advantages over any modern standard. At least Vinyl has a more concrete relation to the history of audio distribution.
Click to expand...

Cassette tapes have the advantage over modern standards of working in my original cassette tape deck in my mustang :)
 
DukenukemX said:
Too bad at the end of the second movie he gets a ZUNE. A fucking Zune. Like that was ever popular enough to warrant having out. Not the ever popular iPod, but fucking Zune. How much did Microsoft pay to have that put in? Or, they could have just stuck with the cassette tape. Hell if someone went back to Earth they'll find out about the internet and all the wonderful loli, let alone all the wonderful music you can stream.
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Screw the iPod, I thought the Zune thing was pretty funny. Something really nerdy and exotic from the pre-smartphone era like the Rio Karma would have fit his character, too.
 
When the 4x3 CRT's make their triumphant return, I'll be reaching for the Hemlock.....
 
86 5.0L said:
Cassette tapes have the advantage over modern standards of working in my original cassette tape deck in my mustang :)
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I still have a cassette-to-device cable I used in my last truck:) Holding on to it ... just in case;):ROFLMAO:
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And you can still buy them all over the place for ~$5:love:
 
DukenukemX said:
Too bad at the end of the second movie he gets a ZUNE. A fucking Zune. Like that was ever popular enough to warrant having out.
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You totally missed the joke: Dude used an old piece of crap audio tech and was happy. ended up with a new piece of crap old tech and totally loves it.
 
Something interesting to consider. If you gave someone who never used an MP3 player before a Zune and an iPod, I bet they would choose the Zune.
 
It's hard to come up with a dumber idea than buying Records over CD's, but this does it. That said, I do buy vinyl, but only as something to collect. I sold my turntable 30+ years ago.
 
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