Audio Video News

Discogs: Cassettes Are Making a Comeback

SV Staff  |  Oct 11, 2018

Just don’t tell Ken Pohlmann. Having recently proclaimed that Cassettes Are Not Making a Comeback, he’ll just laugh.

But the cassette revival is no laughing matter for Portland-based Discogs. On Monday, the online music database/marketplace declared October 8-13 Cassette Week, a grand lead-up to Cassette Store Day.

In the press release announcing the event, Discogs declared: “With Cassette sales growth at 29.54% from 2016 to 2017 and at 35.19% thus far in 2018 in the Discogs Marketplace, the Cassette resurgence is officially here!” No unit sales figures were offered. See Ken’s blog for those.

More from the press release:

Cassette Week celebrates the humble cassette format throughout the week, leading up to Cassette Store Day (Japan, UK, USA) taking place on Saturday, October 13, 2018, around the world. Cassette Week begins with The Cassette Resurgence: An Apple, A Van, And The Go by Sean Bohrman (Burger Records). Other features throughout the week will feature Ben Blackwell (Third Man Records) laying out why cassettes are the new 45s, while uncovering a previously unknown, non-Googleable Jack White appearance around the time the White Stripes were forming; and underground radio legend Bobbito Garcia breaking down how cassettes spread hip-hop culture, and his radio show, all around the globe.
To support Cassette Store Day, Discogs has cataloged about 100 new cassette releases and is encouraging fans to create a Wantlist. Third Man Records is celebrating the occasion with the cassette release of a rare, undocumented Jack White performance — 400 Pounds of Punk: He Once Ate A Small Child — Ben Blackwell pulled from a box of cassettes in his basement.

The cover of the original cassette is shown below. Click the arrow to hear Jack White raucous version of Blondie’s “One Way or Another.”

For more on Cassette Week, including a list of those 2018 cassette releases, visit blog.discogs.com.

COMMENTS
brenro's picture
Submitted by brenro on October 11, 2018 - 10:12am

Back in the day I had a pretty high end TEAC deck as well as a reel to reel player. Vinyl's resurgence makes at least a little bit of sense but who's fondly remembering the sound of tape hiss?

drny's picture
Submitted by drny on October 11, 2018 - 2:33pm

In the summer of 1981, during my summer college break, I took my huge (double cassette) boom box to Europe. As I went through customs, in Brussels, customs agents spent what seem to me like an eternity to inspect my boom box. They put a feeble attempt to joke about confiscating my much desired treasure. The twelve inch woofers and the double cassette deck mesmerized everyone in the continent.
By the summer of 82' I had resold the boom box. My last cassette player was in my 87' Acura Integra.
My LPs and cassettes have been gone for over twenty five years.
I don't miss either, not the case with my CD's or SACD's and blu-ray audio.

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