Music

Urban Outfitters cashes in on the cassette craze

by Jeremy Mersereau

According to The KLF’s Manual,the real “golden age” of music was whenever the critic became an adolescent. Trends come into and out of fashion on a pretty regular cycle, but you’ll never go broke betting on people’s rose-tinted nostalgia of things that were popular when they were children.

Hence: the ongoing resurrection of the cassette tape, an audio format actually more cumbersome to listen to than its predecessor, the vinyl record. Oh well, at least they’re cheap! Cassette releases, sales, and general cultural cachet have been steadily increasing over the past few years, and now tapes have hit the big time, getting the only co-sign that matters: Cultural barometer Urban Outfitters is going to sell them!

Every twentysomething’s favourite apparel and useless-knick-knack store is getting way into the tape game, with plans to roll out a full slate of cassette players and exclusive cassette-only releases from UO-sanctioned acts like Run The Jewels, Beach House, Action Bronson, Alvvays, Japandroids, and more. You can purchase the first batch of tapes later this month, both at the UO online shop and in select, real-world locations.

The news come just in time for Cassette Store Day on October 17th, when Urban Outfitters will be giving away its latest iteration (Volume 11) of their official mixtape. As if you needed an excuse to hit up UO! I always need to stock up on my internet meme mugs.

If the audio format nostalgia trend proceeds as it should, it might be time to start clawing back your CDs from the world’s pawn shops. Can’t wait into culture goes full singularity and we start viewing digital files nostagically. Low-bitrate MP3s just have more warmth, you know?