Here’s why this 60-year-old music format is suddenly outpacing CDs in 2025.
Cassette tape sales jumped by 204.7% in the first quarter of 2025, hitting 63,288 units. Meanwhile, CD sales fell 2.6%. This dramatic comeback of the once-outdated format shows a major shift in how people buy music, following this year’s Record Store Day.
Physical Media Defies Digital Era Expectations
The boom in cassette sales helps drive an overall 5.7% increase in physical music formats during Q1 2025. This growth beats last year’s 2.4% increase for the same period.
Vinyl records remain the top physical format. They grew 15.4% to 1,702,360 units in Q1, better than their 11.5% growth in early 2024. This marks vinyl’s 17th straight year of growth.
The rise of physical formats comes as overall music consumption across all formats grew 6.2% compared to last year. This growth reverses decades of decline. In fact, 2024 was the first year in two decades when physical sales actually increased year-to-year, though only by 1.4%.
Generation Z Leads Unlikely Cassette Comeback
They didn’t grow up rewinding tapes with pencils, but Gen Z is breathing new life into the cassette. According to Key Production, nearly 59% of 18- to 24-year-olds are regularly listening to music on physical formats—including, yes, cassettes.
It’s a bit of a twist: nostalgia for something they never actually lived through. But there’s something about the tactile experience that streaming just can’t match. Young listeners are drawn to the feel of it all—holding the tape, admiring the artwork, flipping through liner notes. It turns listening into more than background noise.
There’s also a growing awareness that owning your music matters. With streaming, you never quite know when a song—or a whole platform—might vanish. That uncertainty doesn’t sit well with everyone.
It’s not just about ownership, either. Mixtape culture is still going strong. People want to curate their own vibe, not leave it up to an algorithm.
And from a practical standpoint, cassettes offer a wallet-friendly way into the world of physical music—cheaper than vinyl, and a lot less fragile than CDs.
Manufacturers Respond With New Cassette Players
The surprise comeback in cassette sales has prompted companies to create new players for a generation unfamiliar with the technology. Several brands launched updated portable players and home systems during 2024 and early 2025.
Chinese manufacturer FiiO Electronics Technology released the CP13 player. It features a copper flywheel that reduces the “wow” and “flutter” distortions common in older players. The company highlights its fully analog audio path with no digital converters.
French brand We Are Rewind has introduced the WE-001 model, which combines retro appeal with modern technology.
Their aluminum-bodied player features Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, USB compatibility, and wireless headphone support.
For home audio fans, brands like Tascam, TEAC, and Marantz have released new cassette decks with modern features. Tascam’s 202MKVII dual-cassette deck allows recording on two cassettes. It also includes USB output for digitizing analog recordings. TEAC’s W-1200 and Marantz’s PMD-300CP also offer USB connectivity alongside traditional functions.
This hardware revival shows manufacturers believe cassettes have staying power, despite their technical limits compared to digital options.
Industry Recalibrates as Streaming Growth Slows
The rise in physical media sales comes as streaming growth slows down. Streaming consumption increased by 6.6% year-on-year in Q1 2025, down from 11.3% growth in the first quarter of 2024.
This slowdown has record labels rethinking their approach to physical formats. They’re exploring new revenue beyond streaming. Major artists are increasingly releasing music on cassettes to tap into this trend and connect with collectors.
Sam Fender, Record Store Day UK ambassador, had the biggest-selling physical release in Q1 with “People Watching” (Polydor), selling 103,101 physical units. Other big names releasing cassettes include Ariana Grande, Kendrick Lamar, and Lady Gaga, showing the format’s growing recognition.
The Recording Industry Association of America reported $2 billion in physical revenues last year, up 5% from the previous year. While vinyl and CDs still lead physical sales, the huge growth in cassette sales suggests a more diverse physical market.
As the industry adjusts to changing tastes, preservation efforts continue. Organizations like the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives are digitizing historical recordings stored on cassettes. This highlights both the format’s cultural importance and its fragility.
The revival of cassettes, alongside continued vinyl growth, points to a complex future for music. It’s a world where digital convenience and physical ownership increasingly exist side by side rather than competing.