Are we really witnessing the return of physical media? Vinyl records, audio cassettes, and stereos are popular among younger generations, here's why

Once again this year, as has in fact been the case for several years now, you can find online a wide range of articles and video content discussing the return of audio cassettes. This is neither a hoax nor an absolute truth. Everything depends on what we mean by return. Because it’s true: from a certain point of view, audio cassettes, which we thought were on the verge of extinction, are back in fashion. This is evidenced by the fact that several global pop stars, such as Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter or Charli xcx, have once again started releasing their albums on cassette.

Is it true that cassettes are making a comeback?

When talking about a cassette comeback in 2025, we should not imagine a large-scale return capable of overturning the way we currently listen to music. That kind of comeback belongs to science fiction. Even though cassette sales have indeed risen sharply in recent years - with reports of a 200% increase in the UK in the first quarter of 2025 - it’s important to remember that this percentage growth was only possible because the baseline had become extremely low.

The cassette was invented in 1963 by Philips engineer Lou Ottens (the same man who would later invent the CD) and reached its peak during the 1980s and 1990s, before falling out of favor after 2000. The revival we talk about today (a topic that has actually been circulating for over a decade, which only proves how hard the cassette is to kill) operates on a much smaller scale compared to its glorious past, on the order of tens of thousands of copies.

These figures are significantly lower even than those of today’s vinyl market, which operates in the millions and remains the best-selling physical music format. Having made this necessary clarification, the cassette revival remains an interesting and growing trend, so peculiar, diverse, complex, and steeped in music history that it deserves to be explored on multiple levels.

Is it really the worst format for listening to music?

At first glance, it may seem like a hard phenomenon to understand because, in many respects, the audio cassette is considered the worst format for listening to music. First of all, its base audio quality is generally inferior to that of other physical and digital formats: bass frequencies are weak, below 40 Hz, while highs roll off above 10 kHz, and everything in between sounds slightly muffled. Then there’s the issue of the tape hiss, a problem that was partially solved in the past with the introduction of the Dolby noise reduction system. However, since 2016 Dolby has stopped licensing this technology, meaning that today’s newly produced cassettes sound worse than older ones - or rather, worse than what was once considered the standard during the cassette’s golden age.

Another limitation is the physical wear of the tape: the magnetic tape inside the cassette deteriorates with every playback, progressively distorting the sound until it becomes so worn that it may even snap. That said, given that the average lifespan of a cassette is around 20–30 years, there are more pressing issues to consider. One of these is the fact that cassette players are no longer easy to find. Most major brands discontinued production long ago, leaving only two viable options today: finding a functioning vintage player, whose maintenance will inevitably be complicated over time, or relying on a few niche manufacturers (such as We Are Rewind, Fiio, or the Italian brand Dirt Tapes) that have launched new models, all based on replicating a technology that stopped evolving decades ago.

There is also the issue of poor usability compared to other formats. A cassette tape has no reference points, there are no vinyl grooves, and if you want to listen to a specific track, the only thing you can do is fast-forward or rewind until you find the exact moment the song begins. You can’t directly select a track like you can on a CD, an iPod, or a streaming platform. You can’t skip what you don’t like, and there’s no shuffle mode. Moreover, it lacks the sacred ritual that accompanies vinyl listening, placing the record on the turntable and lowering the needle. To listen to a cassette, you simply press a button, like turning on a light or any other household appliance. And yet, there is still something magical. But what is it?

Why do cassettes still fascinate us?

To better understand this, it’s important to draw a distinction between mass distribution and small-scale distribution. Both are useful to the cause, but in different ways. As Karim Qqru, drummer of Zen Circus and founder of Dirt Tapes (an Italian label that releases music exclusively on cassette), has explained, producing cassettes with a high-quality standard today requires patience, proper machinery, and a great deal of passion. It’s almost an artisan practice, entirely unlike the way cassettes are produced by major record labels, where the quality of the final product is of secondary importance.

This dual standard exists because the two products are aimed at different audiences. The mainstream audience is largely made up of die-hard fans who often buy cassettes purely as collectibles. This has already happened to some extent with vinyl records: a 2023 Luminate study found that only 50% of people who buy vinyl actually own a turntable. Similarly, many cassettes are purchased with the same intent, they will likely never be played (making audio quality largely irrelevant) but instead displayed on a shelf as a gadget or a badge of honor for true fans. How else can we explain the fact that Taylor Swift’s latest album was released in 27 different physical versions across CD, vinyl, and of course cassette?

Physical media as a political device

As Robert Sheffield says in the beautiful documentary Cassette: A Documentary: «It’s approximate, it’s dirty, it’s marked the way the human body is marked by the space and time it moves through. It carries those scars and scratches, and that becomes part of why you love the tape.» In this context, the cassette’s sonic flaws become an aesthetic feature. This is precisely what we mean when we talk about lo-fi style, which spread thanks to the invention of the portable four-track recorder.

The most famous case is that of Bruce Springsteen, who - as recounted in his recent biopic - used one to record his 1980 album Nebraska alone: a breakaway record («punk at heart») that, compared to the rest of his discography, sounds almost like a collection of unfinished demos. The revolutionary act or rebellious gesture is something the cassette has carried with it since its inception. As Marc Masters explains in High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape, the cassette has always been perceived as a dangerous object for major record labels. It helped give rise to and spread entire grassroots musical genres such as hip-hop, house music, heavy metal, and indie rock.

One extraordinary example of its revolutionary power is the Chinese phenomenon of the dakou tapes in the 1990s. These were discarded tapes from the United States, classified as plastic waste for recycling. Before being shipped to China, they were deliberately cut to make them unusable. But Chinese youth - who were officially allowed to listen only to Chinese music - found ways to repair them, reassembling the tapes without the missing sections. Some songs were lost in the process, but in return, an entire world of Western music was discovered. In much the same way, listening to music on cassette today, instead of through a streaming platform, is certainly more inconvenient - but it can also represent a revolutionary gesture, asserting a reclaiming of human agency against the algorithm.

Cassettes in pop culture

Last but not least, we must consider the influence of pop culture, which in recent years has played a decisive role in making the cassette format cool again, especially in the eyes of younger generations. In the latest season of Stranger Things, released at the end of November, at least three cassettes appear: John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, given to Jonathan to emotionally stir him; one by pop star Tiffany, featuring her beautiful cover of I Think We’re Alone Now (previously used to great effect by Netflix in The Umbrella Academy); and finally Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush, which recalls the iconic scene from season four that broke the algorithm, sending the song back into the charts nearly 40 years after its release. In truth, this trajectory had already begun in the first season, with the mixtape Jonathan gives to Will and the use of Should I Stay or Should I Go by The Clash as a means of communication.

Mixtapes are undoubtedly one of the elements that have most contributed to the cassette’s enduring coolness, both in reality and in fiction. In this regard, we can’t fail to mention the Awesome Mix tapes from Guardians of the Galaxy, which made Star-Lord, played by Chris Pratt, one of the saga’s most beloved characters precisely because of his bond with cassettes (later released by Disney) and his inseparable Walkman. On a smaller scale, Italy also had the case of Sydney Sibilia’s film recounting the absurd story of the mixtapes in Mixed By Erry. But at the root of it all lies the cult scene from High Fidelity, the 2000 film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s bestseller, in which John Cusack explains the rules for making the perfect mixtape as a gift. A scene so iconic that it was echoed in the 2020 TV reboot starring Zoe Kravitz, where the conversation shifts to playlists.

Making a playlist takes just a few clicks; recording a mixtape on cassette requires listening to every single song from start to finish. Every second spent in front of the tape recorder is a second dedicated to the person the cassette is meant for. Love is a mixtape, wrote Robert Sheffield, but the reverse is also true: a mixtape is love. In an old Pitchfork article published for the first Cassette Store Day in 2013, music critic Nick Sylvester wrote: «I like to think that people who love cassettes want romance and fantasy.» Perhaps the secret behind the return of cassettes lies entirely here.