vintage music cassettes and vintage items have always been more valuable than regular items, but what sets them apart them from their modern counterparts; what decides their value?

For the young music lovers out there that aren’t familiar, Vintage Music Cassettes, also known as compact cassettes or tapes, used to store recorded audio. These were invented in 1963 by a company called Philips in Hasselt, Belgium. These were played in radios and in cassette players commonly referred to as Walkmans.

Music Cassettes were sold either as prerecorded or blank. Prerecorded ones already contained music or audio while blank ones didn’t have any audio. They store anywhere from 30 minutes up to 2 hours of audio. Like modern day CDs, these are typically sold as albums along with other memorabilia.

In the 80’s, cassette tapes were sold at around $6-$8 per album depending on the popularity of the artist or the title which was a decent amount back then. Today, you can either buy albums as CD’s, or digitally. CD’s typically cost around $10 to $15 while digital albums on platforms such as iTunes are priced at $10.

Since albums come and go, so did the copies; usually, vintage music cassettes are from albums that are no longer produced or sold. These limited products are what makes them so valuable. Another factor that increases their value is the significance of the tape in the industry.

Xero – Xero is from 1997, new relative to other vintage tapes, holds significant value. Why you may ask? This is a self-titled, and a self-released demo tape from a band called Xero. They will later change their band’s name to Hybrid Theory, and once more into Linkin Park. It is claimed that there are only 12 of these cassettes as of right now which justifies its $4,500 price tag.

Other artists and bands also have their cassettes sought after. Metallica – Live Metal Up Your Ass from 1982 is a self-released title by Metallica. This tape was sold for $516.00. Coldplay – Ode to Deodorant was Coldplay’s first ever tracks and is valued at $799.00. Ode to Deodorant was self-released by Coldplay during 1998. Eminem – Tracks from the Slim Shady EP from 1997 was sold at a price of $1,100.

The cassettes can be sold in box sets that holds multiple tapes. You can consider this an album of albums. Sometimes, box sets are sold along with other memorabilia.

In 2020, cassette tapes have made a comeback, and not just a collector’s item, people use them as a means of entertainment, to listen to music. Vinyl LPs are having a similar resurgence, increasing sales lately by a large percentage. The UK is experiencing quite a surge, selling over 65,000 tapes in mid-2020. The United States of America is in a similar space, experiencing an increase in sales over recent years.