Audio Video News

Are you a hipster? Did you recently buy a turntable from Urban Outfitters—or a cassette deck? (Yes, they sell those.)

Fast Company reports that National Audio Company, one of the last remaining cassette manufacturing operations, saw a 20 percent increase in its commercial tape duplication business last year—a figure that excludes blank tapes and audiobooks.

“This continues an upward-sloping trend for the Missouri-based company, which did more business in 2014 than at any other point since its factory opened in 1969,” writes John Paul Titlow in “Music’s Weird Cassette-Tape Revival Is Paying Off.”

The article explores what Titlow calls the “counterintuitive revival of cassettes,” a tiny niche to be sure, but intriguing—if not puzzling—nonetheless.

For us, this quote—call it Quote of the Day—sums things up:

“I feel like everyone is obsessed with super high fidelity but I like it when things are warm and warbly.” —Andy Molholt, leader of the Philadelphia-based band Laser Background

Read Titlow’s article here.