Cassette Store Day is back. Following an inaugural run last year, the unrelated companion to Record Store Day returns to the U.K., Europe, and the U.S. on Sept. 27.
As announced on its Tumblr on Monday, the event will again feature London cassette labels Kissability and Suplex running things in the U.K. and E.U.; this time, however, Fullerton, Calif.’s Burger Records will be helping out stateside.
“Burger Records loves tapes!,” said the punk and garage stronghold in the post. “We’ve built our foundation on the forgotten format and have been preaching the merits of warm analog cassette culture for years. We’re honored to be ambassadors of Cassette Store Day 2014 in the good ol’ USA! We plan to bring some of our favorite labels to the table and invite everyone to the party and partake in the fun phenomena of releasing top shelf music on cassette tapes in pop culture today!”
Added Kissability’s Jen Long, “When planning this year we really tried to keep cassette labels and fans at the heart of the event. Last year grew far bigger than we had expected so we are thrilled to have Burger involved to help us cover the US side.”
While CSD 2013 (which took place on Sept. 7) warmed the hearts and ears of listeners both nostalgic for music journalist Rob Sheffield’s “Love Is A Mixtape” era and hopeful for analog’s growing sweet spot in the music industry, it did not inspire strong sales: in the week ending Sept. 8, 2013, cassette albums sold just 1,000 — up 1% compared to the previous week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. To boot, those numbers represent a miniscule 0.02% of the total 289 million music units moved sold in 2013.
But CSD co-founder Steve Rose is undaunted. When asked if cassettes will make as big a comeback as vinyl has — which last year’s RSD drove to the highest sales since Nielsen Soundscan started tracking in 1991 — he told Billboard, “The reception to CSD has also been overwhelming which seems to go hand-in-hand with the rising popularity of this accessible, affordable audio medium…The cassette is still a very current format in DIY and underground scenes due to its affordability and ease. I also think physical formats will stick around in music as when you are a fan you want more than a digital file. You want something you can interact with that holds a greater worth and reward.”
This year’s CSD participants have yet to be announced, but last year saw releases from the likes of the Flaming Lips, At The Drive-In, and Deerhunter.
www.cassettestoreday.us
