Oddest Fact of the Day: The Biggest-Selling Cassette of 2011 in the UK Sold 11 Copies
There was a time in the middle 80s when pre-recorded cassettes were the biggest-selling format for music. Thanks to the popularity of the Walkman and its descendents (along with ever-improving cassette decks in cars), people briefly turned their backs on vinyl and went tape-crazy.
The cassette’s time at the top was short, though. CDs eventually eclipsed both pre-recorded tape and vinyl and was the dominant format by 1988.
But cassettes still thrive in some parts of the world including Africa, India and parts of SE Asia. A couple of years ago, I walked into a music store in Ubud, Bali, to see a whole wall of pre-recorded cassettes for sale. Current ones, too.
But the pre-recorded cassette still lives outside developing nations. According to this report from Music Week, the top-selling pre-recorded cassette in the UK in 2011 was ‘N Sync’s 2000 album, I’ll Never Stop, moving a total of 11 (no, that’s not a typo) copies.
It was also the biggest-selling cassette in 2010 (13 units) and 2009 (24 units).
Good for them. It’s nice to be #1, innit.