The cassette tape winds its way back to popularity

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Updated:

Cassette tapes are making a comeback because pensioners are rejecting new technology.

More companies are now set to make cassettes available again to cash in on the growing power of the 'grey pound'.  

It comes as Island Records, producers of the spoken world album Words For You, has sold out a run of 4,000 cassettes after a flood of inquiries.

Tape cassette

Revival: Island Records sold out a 4,000 run of cassette tapes

The company now plans to make 3,000 more.

The album features actors such as Joanna Lumley and Matthew Horne and Joanna Page from BBC show Gavin & Stacey reading poetry from the like of William Wordsworth and John Betjeman over classical music.   

Island Records spokesman Ian Brown said: ‘There's no doubt that our target audience is the older market - people who have already retired and want something that's peaceful and easy to listen to. 

'Their friends and relatives began emailing Amazon.co.uk to ask for it on cassette.   

‘Many of our customers are over 85 and a lot won't even have upgraded to CDs, let alone mp3s, so we thought we would give it a go and made 4,000. They sold out in weeks of going on sale last month.  

‘What's exciting is that we don't know how big the market is because no-one realised there was this demand. 

Senior woman MP3 player, eyes shut

Older market: Pensioners are rejecting MP3 players in favour of cassette tapes

‘There are a lot of elderly people and these are the ones who have regular pensions, who aren't affected by job losses in the recession, so they are still spending.’  

Island Records has now ordered another 3,000 copies to go on sale on the Amazon website but says they will remain a niche product and will not be stocked in shops for the foreseeable future.   

There are now plans to put other classical albums on to cassette, including The Priests, three clergy from Northern Ireland who hit number one in the UK classical charts last year with their debut album, selling 1.5 million copies worldwide. 

Other producers are also looking to aid the revival.

Brian Berg, managing director of Universal Music's UMTV label, said that some of his albums could be released on cassette next year.

He said: ‘It does make commercial sense given Words About You's success and it's something that we will be investigating early next year.  

‘Our Dreamcoats And Petticoats series has sold 1.5 million albums with late Fifties and early Sixties music. 

‘These are the sort of albums that could be worth releasing on cassette.’   

Producers believe there could be a sizeable untapped market after studying sales figures that show buyers of classical music are not interested in the latest formats.   

Words For You sold almost 200,000 copies, but just 768 were downloaded.
 

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