Like most technology, the ways people listen to music has changed immensely over the years. By 2002, production of cassettes came to a halt, and today it's a rarity to find the tapes even in the most niche old school music stores. CDs have become the new normal, and even they have been taken over by digital formats.
Most of the major US music companies had discontinued production of pre-recorded cassettes by 2003. For audiobooks, the final year that cassettes represented greater than 50% of total market sales was 2002 when they were replaced by CDs as the dominant media.
The cassette tape became the standard audio format from the late 1970s to the early 90s after the first portable cassette tape players were made available to the general public to record, share, and play music conveniently.
Eight-track players became less common in homes and vehicles in the late 1970s. The compact cassette had arrived in 1963. In the U.S., eight-track cartridges were phased out of retail stores in late 1982 and early 1983.
In perfect circumstances, cassette tapes will only last about 30 years if properly stored away from heat, humidity, and UV rays. Whereas a CD stored in the same conditions can last over 100 years. Two common factors for cassette tape deterioration are heat and tape recorder malfunctions.
Whether your cassette tapes are worth some cash relies on a few factors. This media is no longer mass produced, so chances are, your cassette tapes are collectible! If you're a collector of vintage technology, you'll definitely want some cassette tapes, in addition to your vinyl.
Usable cassette tapes should be donated or sold. Cassette tapes that are no longer usable should be disposed of in the trash.
However, when comparing 8-track vs. cassette tapes, the sound quality is vastly better on the 8-track. The smaller tape size and slower playback speed compared to an 8-track also gave it less fidelity overall.
Cassette Tape History
The Dutch company Philips invented the first audio cassette, called a compact cassette. This format was introduced to a European audience in 1963 at the Berlin Radio Show and the following year made its debut in the U.S. market.
Cassettes dominated the musical album market in the 1980s and 90s before being knocked off by CDs. In 2012, annual sales of cassettes dropped below 4,000 units. But purchases of the retro format have regained popularity in recent years, with sales growing for a tenth consecutive year in 2022.
But at this point, its resurgence is undeniable. In addition to Swift and Eilish, Lady Gaga, the Weeknd, Maren Morris, and Sturgill Simpson, to name just a few, have made some of their albums available on the format.
Vinyl was the original vessel for recording music, later replaced by cassette and, finally, CD.
Before the CD came around, the cassette tape was the primary format that music lovers were pumping in their headphones and at home. Invented in the early 60s, the small cassette tape allowed for better portability and durability than vinyl, even though vinyl was still widely used and loved.
Prior to the release of the first cassette players, the 8-track tape was the king of car stereos. After all, vinyl LPs were still the most popular format for at-home listening, but for portability, the 8-track was the thing.
In 1988 CD sales surpassed vinyl LPs, and by 1989 they outsold prerecorded music cassette tapes for the first time ever — thus becoming the most popular audio format.
Very few manufacturers are producing new cassette players, so if you are looking for a tape deck for home listening, chances are you'll have to rely on second-hand markets.
It's a resurgence similar to that of vinyl records, albeit on a much smaller scale. There's only a handful of cassette manufacturers left in the U.S. One of them is Nick Keshishian, who still has the original equipment he used when cassette tapes were in their heyday.
Discogs.com look up the catalog number and it will show you the year. Printed on the card is the year.
The Eagles Greatest Hits 1971-1975
This classic compilation album from The Eagles takes the top spot as the best-selling cassette tape of all time, with over 38 million copies sold worldwide.
Due to the magnetic tape limitations of cassettes, noise intrusion can be more noticeable in a cassette and ultimately affect the sound quality. Even a cassette with noise reduction will have a smaller signal-to-noise ratio than a CD. So based on the facts, CDs are superior to cassettes.
The quality of sound is scaled on the dynamic range, frequency response, and the signal-to-noise ratio. In all three of these measures, the cassette tape has a poorer quality measure than CDs and vinyl. But unless you're an expert audiophile, you might not notice these differences as much.
It's possible to remove dirt and debris from cassettes with water damage if you do this correctly, however, professional cassette tape restoration is the best option. To replace a cracked or damaged shell, the tape needs to be carefully removed from the old housing and placed into a new one.
Blank, unused cassette tapes might be worth just $2-$4 for the piece, but rare and branded ones might be worth much more.