Cassette tapes. Something I haven’t used since I was in elementary school; practicing my French by listening to practice tapes every night. Soon after we skyrocketed into the world of iPods, CD players, and now online streaming. But things are changing back to their old ways once again. The recent surge of vinyl record sales in the last 5 years can attribute to the reason cassette tapes are now making a comeback as well.
With the popular release of the film Guardians of the Galaxy, the most used prop was a Walkman that sound-tracked the entire length of the film to bring back the great sounds of the 80's. Not only did they release the movie soundtrack on CD and vinyl but it was also thefirst album Disney released on a cassette since 2003.
A number of companies followed suit re-releasing Eminem’s The Slim Shady LP, Justin Bieber’sPurpose, and The Weeknd’s Beauty Behind the Madness on cassettes. It’s the new wave of hipster merchandise that’s begun making its way from the shelves of Urban Outfitters into your local Record Stores until it finally reaches the next major company. And now almost every current band offers cassette versions of singles and albums to purchase on their online stores. Just this last year The 1975 released their entire album I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It on a pink cassette tape.
It’s an exciting time for the long forgotten cassette tape and possibly a new awakening for the Walkmanjust 7 years after Sony ceased manufacturing the product. There’s definitely a market for a new version of a cassette player.
Luckily, one company snatched up on the opportunity just as the wave has begun to grow. Elbow, a branch of the company BrainMonk, has brought about a new piece of technology, the Elbow. The company released a survey on their website for people to express their opinions on the product and request to purchase them. Needless to say, they sold out quickly. On their website they stated, “we’ve received orders of magnitude more answers than we could ever anticipate for which we are endlessly grateful to all of you.” the design of the new cassette player is minimal, easy to use with a bi-axial arm and control wheel, and styled with a slick and clean aesthetic.
The concept is simple and easy to use for any age and clearly has received great feedback from potential buyers. I’m sure it’s quickly changed from the prototype stage into becoming one of the hottest buys of 2017. Interested in seeing exactly how it works? Check out the video below!
To check out more about the new Elbow, visit their website at http://www.elbow.co.nf/. And let us know if you think it’s time to bring cassettes back?
