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How retro can you go?
Other | Monday 7th January 2013 | David
Cassette single sales tripled in 2012… but they’re not quite rivalling the other music formats just yet.
Clearly, music distribution has evolved. Why buy physical copies when you can buy online? Then again, why buy them at all when pretty much everything can be downloaded these days? But one long-forgotten format has been making a stand, and it’s none other than the humble cassette single. Yes, apparently they still exist.
These relics are not exactly sky-rocketing in popularity, but sales tripled in 2012 to a not-so-huge 604. It’s pretty impressive considering they’re mostly seen gathering dust in unused drawers these days. The modest jump followed the January release of Feeder’s ‘Borders’, released on cassette among a host of other formats. The band dominated the rather sparse market, with 480 of the cassettes sold. Check out the track below to see what those people were listening to.
Whether this made much of a difference this made to the band and the music scene in general is extremely doubtful. It also seems unlikely that cassettes will make a glorious comeback on the back of this news, but it’s nice to see they’re trying.
By Dave Rees
@DavidWRees
