TORONTO — The comeback of cassette tapes was deemed a fad by many, but sales of the physical medium showed little sign of slowing in Canada this year.
Nielsen Music Canada says overall sales of cassettes rose about 14 per cent in 2018, extending the increase of six per cent last year.
Total sales of the pocket-sized medium reached 8,500 copies through the week ending Dec. 20, the data agency reported, helped by soundtracks for the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films.
The two best-selling titles of the year were for compilations of music from the Marvel movies, which prominently feature the characters travelling the galaxy to homemade mix tapes.
Together, the soundtracks represented 21 per cent of cassette sales, Nielsen said.
Sales of cassettes still represent a tiny fraction of physical media sales, with vinyl records projected to sell more than 894,000 copies this year.
Compact discs are expected to sell about 6.9 million copies, a decline of about 28 per cent from last year.