Are cassettes still relevant? Who they suit, and when vinyl or CD is the better buy

How big the revival really is

From 1983 to 1991 the cassette was the best-selling format for new music in the US. Pre-recorded sales reached 442 million in 1990, then collapsed to 274,000 by 2007. Today’s market is a small fraction of that peak, but it grew in both the US and the UK in 2025.

Scale matters here. The US figure is only about 0.5% of physical album sales, and vinyl sold 47.9 million copies in the same year, roughly 100 for every tape. Growth hasn’t been smooth either: Official Charts notes a slight UK dip in 2024. Cassettes are a niche with momentum, not a rival to the record.

The chart figures also show that not every sale comes from a devoted tape listener. Robbie Williams’s Better Man soundtrack was the UK’s best-selling cassette album of 2025 at 21,400 copies, and tapes made up 49% of its 43,000 chart sales. Official Charts calls the cassette “a pivotal extra format in the race for a Number 1 album.” Some of those buyers were probably fans collecting one more edition, and a sales figure can’t show how many of them own a working player.

Why tapes still matter

They let small artists release something physical. KQED reported that 500 tapes cost about $2.55 each to duplicate, roughly half the per-unit price of 500 records, and that runs of 100 to 200 copies were practical because duplicators didn’t charge the small-run surcharges that pressing plants did. Those figures date from 2017, so the prices are out of date, but the gap is the point. In a 2022 Euronews report, label manager Luke Owen put a minimum pressing of 300 records at about two grand with no guarantee of breaking even, and Graham Brownlie, who runs a tape business, cited vinyl waits of at least eight months.

That changes what gets released. KQED reported that lower costs let labels take chances on unknown artists, and one label said a tape lets listeners hear what an artist sounds like right now. Some music is therefore easiest to buy physically on tape, because a pressing was never going to pay for itself. Euronews also reported that distributors remained reluctant to carry most cassette releases, so these tapes tend to sell directly, through artists, labels and shows.

They are cheap to own. One label owner told KQED that a tape might cost $5 or $6 at a show, against $15 to $25 for an LP. Those are 2017 prices and today’s will differ, but a small-label tape is still usually a low-risk way to try an unfamiliar artist. Some listings, particularly on Bandcamp, also include a digital download, which covers the problem of not always having a player nearby. Each listing says whether it does.

They hold a lot of music. A tape can run far longer than a side of vinyl: KQED mentions about 90 minutes in total, or 45 a side, against the roughly 22 minutes a side at which a record has to start being cut quieter. Tape also runs at a constant speed, so it doesn’t lose treble toward the end of a side in the way a record does toward its center.

People make their own. Most cassettes sold in the format’s heyday were blank, used to record albums, the radio and mixtapes. Records and pressed CDs can’t do that, and a home-recorded tape remains a very direct way to make something for another person. It does need a machine that records, and not every new player can: the FiiO CP13, for one, has no recording input.

Some people like how they sound and feel. A collector told Euronews about the “fatter sound” of tape and playing tapes in the car. Others describe the emotional pull of holding the object, or simply the nostalgia of what they grew up with. A pocket-sized tape with a handwritten or printed insert has its own appeal, separate from anything a meter can show.

What tape does to the sound

On paper the cassette is the weakest of the three formats, and experts quoted by Euronews say so plainly. It stores sound on narrow tracks, about 0.6 mm each, moving at only 4.76 cm per second, which limits how much it can capture.

Hiss is only part of the character. Tape also struggles with loud high frequencies, which is why cymbals and “s” sounds on a hot recording can sound dull or smeared. Tape type matters as well. Ferric tape, which dominated pre-recorded cassettes, is often praised for its bass, while chrome is quieter and metal has the widest dynamic range. Whether the softened, slightly compressed result is pleasant is a matter of taste. A warble from a tired machine is simply a fault.

The machine counts for as much as the tape. A Digital Trends reviewer found that a new reissue sounded “fantastic” on a $100 FiiO portable player, while decades-old tapes on the same player showed less definition and occasional warble and pop. A disappointing tape doesn’t always mean a disappointing format, and a poor player doesn’t show what the format can do.

Who cassettes suit

• Fans of small artists

  Experimental, underground and very local releases may only exist physically on tape. Since many of these tapes sell directly, the money often goes straight to an artist or a small label.

• Listeners on a budget

  Someone who wants physical music, without the outlay on a turntable and new records, can start cheaply. Thrift-store tapes and a modest player are a low-stakes way to find out whether the format appeals.

• People with old tapes or an old car

  A family collection, a home-recorded mix or a car with a working deck is a good enough reason on its own. In those cases the tape is already there, and only the player needs attention.

• Collectors of a favorite artist

  A limited-run tape can be a cheap way to own one more piece of a catalog, and rare tapes can hold value: Euronews reported Kate Bush cassettes selling for well over $100. Plenty of ordinary used tapes sell for very little.

• Tinkerers and mixtape makers

  Recording, cleaning a head path, choosing tape types and looking after an old deck are part of the fun for some owners. For others, that’s the very reason to stay away.

When vinyl or CD is the better buy

Choose a CD for accuracy and low cost. A CD plays with no hiss or wobble, doesn’t wear from playing, and rips to a digital library in minutes. A guide from CLIR and NIST notes that CDs don’t wear from friction the way records and tapes do. For an album that matters as a recording, particularly quiet or wide-ranging music, a CD is usually the most faithful of the three, and in the RIAA’s 2025 figures the average new CD cost about half as much at wholesale as a new record. Used copies are often cheap, and the used CD guide covers what to check.

Choose vinyl for the album as an object. A record offers a 12-inch sleeve with artwork and notes that a tape’s fold-out card can’t match. Far more new records are sold than tapes, so a wanted album is much more likely to be available, and collectors have documented the differences between pressings in detail. A record usually costs more than a tape, and how it compares with a CD depends on the album and its master.

Skip the tape if the player would be bought only for one album. The cheapest model in SlashGear’s 2026 roundup, the FiiO CP13 at around $90, has wow and flutter “predictably worse than on vintage units”, and the same article says the roughly $160 We Are Rewind player will “never sound pristine, given the format.” Better playback tends to mean either a new deck such as the roughly $600 Teac W-1200, which offers noise reduction, or a serviced vintage machine. That money buys a lot of CDs.

Be careful with long-term plans. Tape needs looking after over time. The US National Archives says that magnetic tapes stored under archival conditions generally last about 10 to 50 years before decay makes them difficult to handle, and less under worse conditions. A Library of Congress and FUJIFILM study was more optimistic about polyester tape at room temperature, but it tested open-reel tape, not cassettes, so its findings may not carry over. Anyone who wants an album to last should have a copy in a second format or a digital file.

Before buying a tape

Unrip compares prices for vinyl and CD only, so it won’t find cassette listings. For tapes, the usual places to look are artists’ and labels’ own stores, Bandcamp, Discogs and local record shops.

Sources & further reading

1. 2025 Music Data: Taylor Swift Is Album Queen As Charts Become Fickle — Bill Rosenblatt, Forbes
2. The Official best-selling cassette singles and albums of 2025 — Official Charts
3. Luminate year-end report: physical album sales continue to grow — Lazy-i
4. Why the Cassette Resurgence Isn’t Going Away — Chris Zaldua, KQED
5. Why does anyone buy cassettes? Meet the music fans who swear by tape — Euronews, via Yahoo News
6. Cassette tape — Wikipedia
7. Compact Cassette tape types and formulations — Wikipedia
8. 4 Of The Best Modern Cassette Players You Can Buy In 2026 — SlashGear
9. FiiO CP13 portable cassette player review — Derek Malcolm, Digital Trends
10. Audio Guidance: Condition of Materials and Storage — US National Archives
11. Study Reveals New Findings on Longevity of Legacy Magnetic Audio Tape — CLIR
12. How Long Will Your Old Cassette Tapes Actually Last? — Trevor Mogg, BGR
13. Print-through — Society of American Archivists
14. Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs: A Guide for Librarians and Archivists — CLIR and NIST
15. Year-End 2025 Music Industry Revenue Report — RIAA

Related guides

• Vinyl vs CD: what really differs, and how to choose for each albumThe format matters less than the master. What the vinyl cutting process and the loudness war do to a record, what blind tests show, and how cost, wear and convenience compare.
• Buying used CDs: what to check before and after you buyWhich scratches matter and which don’t, how to spot disc rot, what club editions, promos and Japanese pressings are, and how to check a used CD the day it arrives.