By Jo Best, 8 May 2007 16:08
NEWS
Following the demise of the floppy disk, it looks like analogue tape is about to meet a similar fate: Currys has announced it will no longer be stocking cassettes.
According to the electronics retailer, the growth of music downloads has sounded the death knell for the cassette. As of today, Currys will start flogging off its old stock of tapes and won't order in any more when supplies are exhausted. Cassette player equipment is also scheduled to vanish within the next 18 months.
The tape was born in 1963 when Philips launched the format which went on to gain popularity in the 1970s and 80s. The Thatcher years saw the biggest boom in cassette buying as portable tape players, led by Sony's Walkman, allowed music fans to listen to music on the go.
In 1989, at the height of sales of pre-recorded music cassettes, 83 million such tapes were bought by UK shoppers, while 1990 saw 95 million blank tapes shifted.
Three years later, however, its star began to fade with the launch of the CD and in 1993 the shiny disks were outselling analogue tapes. This year, Currys expects to sell less than one million blank tapes and envisages sales of music tapes will be "negligible".
Digital music, however, continues to grow. Analyst Berg Insight predicts music sold on digital formats will outsell physical by 2011.
Sales of tapes, which first launched under the brand Compact Cassettes, have slumped in recent years, said Peter Keenan, MD of Currys. Electronics buyers are now opting for recordable media including MP3 players, DVDs and memory sticks, he said.
Comments
There are 9 comments. Join the discussion
1. EBGB
So how are we supposed to record radio programmes for listening to anywhere other than online?
My parents, and thousands others, don't have digital music players, and aren't about to replace their multiple radio / cassette players with digital radios with SD card slots costing upwards of 3 figures. Not least because the digital radio signal coverage is still so poor.
Yet again the drive for profits ignores anyone who believes in keeping products until end of physical life rather than until the manufacturers & retailers designate it "obsolete".
2. anonymous
Goodbye and good riddance!
Poor quality and chewed up tapes no more!
Why do we get so sentimental about these recording media?
3. David Fletcher
But does anybody else remember the Elcaset? Nice try Sony (I mean that) I would have bought one if they'd stayed around. I saw them in the hi-fi shops when I was a student but they were beyond my means at the time.
See here:-
http://home.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/elcaset/index.html
where some information is available for the curious.
4. gk
From death of the floppy disk to now death of the cassette tape... And yet i don't think today's world we live in is all that more advanced...
5. Jay C
Place your bets: how many years until CDs are out-moded.
BTW obviously to record radio, you do it on the PC. no excusses, most my customers are pentioners.
6. Sarah
One of the problems that I have with this is that I have a large library of pre-recorded tapes from BBC and the like with old shows on them plus some unadbridged audio books.
Are the BBC and the like expecting me to replace them just because the manufacturers are no longer deem it profitable to make them any more?
And if I was to do this, I would spend a fortune of CD versions only for them to be obsolete again in a few years with the onset of MP3, etc content.
I think not.
7. Andrew Robb
There are millions of blank cassette tapes bought and never used that will continue to show up at car boot sales for a few pence for years to come - enough to wear out existing radio/cassette units.
While we wait for DAB coverage, how about a SAM4096MP3 4GB MP3 player / FM radio recorder for about £33
8. SDS
> So how are we supposed to record radio programmes for listening to anywhere other than online?
Yes, curse those write-once audio cassettes!
9. anonymous
Sometimes, as time progresses stupidity also progresses. The stoppage of tape is good example of stupidity of business involved in music publishing. Stoppage of cassettes would only lead to increased losses in the form of filesharing.