Rewind to the 1980s as the cassette tape makes a comeback …

Audio cassettes, which were cast aside in the digital revolution by the arrival of Compact Discs and internet downloads, are making a comeback. Demand for blank audio cassettes has soared as music fans return to the analogue sound of the C60 and C90 tape for listening to tracks. Nostalgia for the richer sound of cassette tapes could see a revival similar to that enjoyed by vinyl records that were once displaced by the CD.

Worldwide sales of audio tapes slumped by 60 per cent during the 1990s, forcing manufacturers such as Maxell and TDK to slim down their ranges while Philips, which launched the first tape in 1963, ceased production altogether.

Original blank cassettes from the late 1980s and early 1990s are now fetching up to £22.50 each on internet auction sites amid demand from devotees for rare and high-quality tapes such as the discontinued TDK MA-XG 90 or the Sony UX Pro 90.

“There has been a resurgence, partly driven by the high-end music purists market and partly because of what you might call the ’silent majority’ of people who still have a cassette player in their kitchen or their car,” said David Price, editor of Hi-Fi World magazine.

“It is about the quality of sound with an analogue recording which is so much richer than the very flat digital sound you get in an iPod. “

“Personal stereo cassette players were remarkably good quality. I have an old Sony Walkman that must have cost about £30 in Boots, and the sweet sound is better than I could get in an iPod.” Holli Ng, a UK spokeswoman for Maxell, said the electronics firm had seen an increase in demand for its cassettes. She said: “A lot of people seem to be returning to the mix tape where you record a compilation of special songs for your boyfriend or girlfriend. “It is a bit more romantic to get a tape because doing the same thing on an iPod or a CD doesn’t take any effort at all.”

The revival of compilation tapes comes despite the availability of computer software such as iTunes, which makes it easy to assemble a playlist of favourite songs. The trend is highlighted in the current issue of 10, the fashion magazine, in which Alex Petridis, a music critic, writes: “Making a compilation tape was a great labour of love…you certainly had to really like the music you put on one, because in order to make the tape, you had to listen to its contents as you recorded it.

“You don’t have to do that in iTunes. It’s made compilation-makers of us all, democratising something that used to be specialised, requiring very specific skills, not least the judicious use of the pause button. “It’s one of the great forgotten folk arts, like the ability to cope with boredom because the shops were shut and there was nothing on television except Highway with Harry Secombe.”

A spokesman for TDK said it continued to make audio cassettes but that sales were “hundreds of thousands” a year rather than the millions of the late 1980s. Mr Price said the popularity of tapes peaked in 1988 when 73 million music tapes were sold, compared to LP records which peaked at 58 million in 1975. Internet search engine Yahoo has reported “a bump in searches” for ‘blank cassette tapes’ (up 210 per cent) and ‘music cassette tapes’ (up 110 per cent).

Audio tapes became such an important purchase for music-obsessed teenagers in the 1980s that manufacturers used bright packaging and technical names such as “chrome bias” and “heavy metal” to boost sales of the more expensive cassettes instead of the cheap ferric types. Blank sticky labels also turned music fans into home librarians, allowing collections recorded from LPs or from the radio to be archived and indexed.

Philips, the Dutch electronics giant, launched the compact audio cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show. More than 40 years on, many are still lurking in car glove compartments and at the back of drawers.