Elderly help audio cassettes make a comeback

LONDON - Audio cassettes are returning to the shelves, thanks to the elderly listeners’ rejection of latest formats of CDs and digital downloads.

Record companies were said to be releasing music on tape again to meet the growing demand from more senior music fans.

Ian Brown, from Island Records, placed an order of thousands more copies of the album Words For You when its 4,000 copies on cassette vanished within weeks of going on sale.

“Many of our customers are over 85 and a lot won’t even have upgraded to CDs, let alone mp3s, so we thought we would give it a go and made 4,000. They sold out in weeks of going on sale last month,” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

“What is exciting is that we don’t know how big the market is because no one realised there was this demand.

There are a lot of elderly people and these are the ones who have regular pensions, who aren’t affected by job losses in the recession, so they are still spending,” he added. (ANI)