The Top 40 bestselling cassettes of 2018

 

On your marks, cassette, go!

 

2018 was the biggest year for cassette sales in over a decade, with music fans across all age ranges getting their hands on a cassette by their favourite chart act. The BPI revealed sales of the format were up 125.3% year-on-year, reaching 50,000 sales in 2018 compared to just under 30,000 sold in 2017, according to Official Charts Company data.

 

While some cassettes are stocked in high street retailers, the majority are available through artists' official webstores and at live gigs, often in collectable limited edition runs. Last year saw the highest number of cassettes purchased in the UK since 2004. So which artists are helping the phoenix format rise from the ashes?

 

The 1975 scored 2018's bestselling cassette with their Number 1 album A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships. Available in white, red, purple and green, the group sold 7,500 copies of their studio album on cassette in its first week of release, making it the fastest-seller on the format since July 2002.

 

Kylie Minogue was also a big seller on the vintage platform, shifting an impressive 6,262 tapes of her Number 1 album Golden. Following it's initial release, Kylie also released a Collector's Edition and a Winter Collector's Edition.

 

Kylie's BMG labelmates The Prodigy finish third in the 2018 countdown, having sold 2,148 cassettes of their Number 1 album No Tourists. Should they have not released a cassette, they would only have topped the Official Albums Chart by five combined sales.

 

Released in 2017, Guardians of the Galaxy's Awesome Mix 2 continued to sell well last year, ranking in fourth, while streaming supremo Ariana Grande proved she's also popular on the retro format in fifth. Elsewhere, Delta by Mumford & Sons is in sixth, ahead of the first ever Now That's What I Call Music! album (reissued alongside the release of NOW 100) at 7, and Guardians of the Galaxy's Awesome Mix 1 at 8. Snow Patrol's latest album Wildness, and Take That's reimagined greatest hits Odyssey close out the Top 10 at Numbers 9 and 10.

 

2018 releases that also sold well on cassette include Thirty Seconds To Mars, twenty one pilots and Manic Street Preachers, while Rick Astley, Courteeners, 5 Seconds of Summer, Arctic Monkeys and Blossoms also feature in the year-end Top 20.

 

POS TITLE ARTIST PEAK

1 A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS THE 1975 1

2 GOLDEN KYLIE MINOGUE 1

3 NO TOURISTS PRODIGY 1

4 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - AWESOME MIX 2 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK 2*

5 SWEETENER ARIANA GRANDE 1

6 DELTA MUMFORD & SONS 2

7 NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC VARIOUS ARTISTS 2*

8 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY - AWESOME MIX 1 ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK 2*

9 WILDNESS SNOW PATROL 2

10 ODYSSEY TAKE THAT 1

11 AMERICA 30 SECONDS TO MARS 4

12 TRENCH TWENTY ONE PILOTS 2

13 RESISTANCE IS FUTILE MANIC STREET PREACHERS 2

14 BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY - OST QUEEN 3

15 BEAUTIFUL LIFE RICK ASTLEY 6

16 ST. JUDE RE:WIRED COURTEENERS 5

17 YOUNGBLOOD 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER 3

18 TRANQUILITY BASE HOTEL + CASINO ARCTIC MONKEYS 1

19 COOL LIKE YOU BLOSSOMS 4

20 MY MIND MAKES NOISES PALE WAVES 8

21 COLLAPSE APHEX TWIN 11

22 BUILD A TOWER SLOW READERS CLUB 18

23 NATURAL REBEL RICHARD ASHCROFT 4

24 PALO SANTO YEARS & YEARS 3

25 LIVING IN EXTRAORDINARY TIMES JAMES 6

26 BACK IN BLACK AC/DC 27

27 THE 5.98 EP - GARAGE DAYS RE-REVISITED METALLICA 42

28 BE MORE KIND FRANK TURNER 3

29 THE STARS THE OCEANS & THE MOON ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN 11

30 SIMULATION THEORY MUSE 1

31 VI YOU ME AT SIX 6

32 THE NOW NOW GORILLAZ 5

33 THE LAST KING OF POP PAUL HEATON 10

34 RITUALS DEAF HAVANA 8

35 YOU ARE SOMEONE ELSE FICKLE FRIENDS 9

36 ENTER THE WU-TANG (36 CHAMBERS) WU-TANG CLAN 83

37 TECHNOLOGY DON BROCO 5

38 WORLD BEYOND ERASURE 47

39 STAYING AT TAMARA'S GEORGE EZRA 1

40 BLACK HONEY BLACK HONEY 33

©2019 Official Charts Company. All rights reserved.

 

* Peak on the Official Compilations Chart

I get vinyls but cassettes being a thing is just an absolute joke. Nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake.

I get vinyls but cassettes being a thing is just an absolute joke. Nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake.

Exactly, all this shows is who has the biggest fan base with money to waste x how many were available

Kylie not even #1!

 

The Prodigy at #3 *.* this should be the official EOY tbh. (Lmao at that stat about them being #1 by only 5 units excluding their cassette sales :mellow:)

Worryingly I bought 7 of them!

 

02 GOLDEN KYLIE MINOGUE 1

03 NO TOURISTS PRODIGY 1

07 NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC VARIOUS ARTISTS 2*

10 ODYSSEY TAKE THAT 1

15 BEAUTIFUL LIFE RICK ASTLEY 6

26 BACK IN BLACK AC/DC 27

33 THE LAST KING OF POP PAUL HEATON 10

 

The 1975 last year were the first cassette I've ever bought!

I’m assuming TGS isn’t available on cassette, didn’t necessarily think it would be number 1 but would have thought it would make top 40 if it was

Worryingly I bought 7 of them!

 

02 GOLDEN KYLIE MINOGUE 1

03 NO TOURISTS PRODIGY 1

07 NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL MUSIC VARIOUS ARTISTS 2*

10 ODYSSEY TAKE THAT 1

15 BEAUTIFUL LIFE RICK ASTLEY 6

26 BACK IN BLACK AC/DC 27

33 THE LAST KING OF POP PAUL HEATON 10

 

 

Have you actually played them? It's just I read that some fans are buying them as well as the CD or LP and won't play them so as they don't get chewed up by the player.

A lot of the time they come in some sort of bundle.

Have you actually played them? It's just I read that some fans are buying them as well as the CD or LP and won't play them so as they don't get chewed up by the player.

 

Admittedly not all! As WhoOdyssey says some were part of a bundle where there was a discount which amounted to the cassette being free or a pound or 2. The Now one I bought to replace my original which is well worn at this stage. The Rick Astley one came with a download code so it ws actually cheaper to buy it than the CD. I do have one of those tape players which you can connect to your computer and transfer the music but it needs replaced.

The 1975 last year were the first cassette I've ever bought!

 

Where'd you get your 1975 cassette?