Entertainment

It's official: cassettes are making a comeback

It's official: cassettes are making a comeback
It's official: cassettes are making a comeback It's official: cassettes are making a comeback

Hot on the heels of the resurgence of vinyl, cassette tapes are making a comeback.

Sales of old-fashioned tapes were up 74% in America last year, according to Nielsen, which tracks music sales in the States.

It should be pointed out, however, that the numbers are still relatively small – 129,000 last year compared to 74,000 the previous year.

The surge in cassette sales follows a similar trend for vinyl (John Stillwell/PA)

To put that in context, 200.8 million albums were sold in total, Billboard reports, with 13.1 million sold on vinyl.

The top selling album on cassette was Guardians Of The Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 – the tape played by the lead character Peter Quill in the Marvel movie.

It was actually released in 2014, but sold 4,000 copies last year.

Artists such as Justin Bieber and The Weeknd released albums on tape last year, which were among the best-sellers.In the UK, sales of vinyl soared last year, with 3.2 million LPs sold – a rise of 53% on 2015. That was the highest number for 25 years and saw vinyl sales overtake album downloads.