Image Credit: Official Charts UK

Cassette Sales Soar As They Hit 17 Year High, Here’s The Top 40

In an earlier article we talked about the rise of cassette culture, digging deep into an ever growing community based around the music format. It wasn’t until fairly recently, like vinyl (or more so) that cassettes were a dying format. Pushed into the very corners of nicheness. However, cassettes popularity has been on the up in recent years (thanks to retrofetishism and popular retrospective media) and in 2020 cassette sales almost doubled to their highest in 17 years.

Like Vinyl, the rise of cassettes shows that streaming and physical sales can sit comfortably next to one other. Music fans will always want something tangible, something real that you can hold in your hands.

According to the end-of-year report by music industry body the BPI, sales were up 94.7% in 2020 compared to the previous year, with 156,542 cassettes sold in the UK – the highest total since 2003.

Sales on the format remain tiny in the context of the overall music market (around 0.2%), but the increase shows the cassette revival is far from over yet.

The highest selling cassette was Lady Gaga‘s ‘Chromatica’, which sold 14,000 copies, 8,600 of those were sold in the first week. Following close behind was 5 Seconds Of Summer‘s latest album ‘CALM’ with 13,000 cassette sales, while Yungblud‘s ‘Weird’ came in at third with 7,700 sales.

The top 40 are as follows (In order):

Lady Gaga – Chromatica

5 Seconds Of Summer – CALM

Yungblud – Weird

The 1975 – Notes In A Conditional Form

Blackpink – The Album

Selena Gomez – Rare

Kylie Minogue – Disco

Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia

HAIM – Women In Music Pt.3

The Streets – None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Life

Neck Deep – All Distortions Are Intentional

Gorillaz – Song Machine Season one – Strange Timez

Steps – What The Future Holds

Michael Ball & Alfie Boe – Together At Christmas

Gary Barlow – Music Played By Humans

Mcfly – Young Dumb Thrills

Ozzy Osbourne – Ordinary Man

Ellie Goulding – Brightest Blue

Louis Tomlinson – Walls

Sports Team – Deep Down Happy

Ariana Grande – Positions

Biffy Clyro – A Celebration Of Endings

Lany – Mumma’s Boy

Enter Shikari – Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible

Glass Animals – Dreamland

Little Mix – Confetti

Beabadoobee – Fake It Flowers

AC/DC – Power Up

Guardians Of The Galaxy – Awesome Mix 1

Queen And Adam Lambert – Live Around The World

Declan McKenna – Zeros

Carly Rae Jepsen – Dedicated (Side B)

Blossoms – Foolish Loving Spaces

Disclosure – Energy

Sea Girls – Open Up Your Head

Oasis – What’s The Story Morning Glory?

Erasure – The Neon

Guardians Of The Galaxy – Awesome Mix 2

Creeper – Sex, Death & The Infinite Void

Easy Life – Junk Food