Cassette tape sales experienced an insane growth of around 23 percent in the United States in 2018, and if you were one of the people demanding shipments of cassettes from across the pond, then we have bad news for you.
It seems that your next purchase in pursuit of the vintage may not be easy. The Earth has experienced a shortage of the material needed to manufacture the audio platform, causing mass delays for audio distributors around the globe. Bring on the age of the cassette!
The growth in the United States pales in comparison to the 125 percent surge in cassette tape sales last year, according to Nielsen Soundscan (and reported by Pitchfork). This still high stateside demand coupled with a shortage of high grade gamma ferric oxide is causing problems for the National Audio Company, Inc., which is the largest cassette tape manufacturer in the US.
Record label Hausu Mountain shared a letter onto the Twitter that highlights the underlying issue at hand. According to the letter, the factory that makes high-grade gamma ferric oxide, “the magnetic material used in making professional quality audio recording tape,” has been undergoing renovation throughout the majority of this year.
National Audio explained that this year they have only received two tonnes of the material, which is preventing them from filling orders on their typical 30-day schedule. For some perspective on those two tons, the tape manufacturing company has over 50 tons currently back-ordered, though they will be receiving 11 tons of the gamma ferric oxide in October.
Read the full letter below, which features my favourite sentence ever formed in the English language, “SIRI. ALEXA. LEXA. How do I mine high grade gamma ferric oxide from the earth?”
https://twitter.com/HausuMountain/status/1182050028183003136
So there is good news for the foreseeable future, but long story short, the Earth has had enough of our love for cassettes, which can be pretty cool to collect, just as vinyl was before its resurgence.
