CASSETTES and vinyl records have made a comeback as music lovers increasingly turn to old formats despite the rise of streaming.

A rewind to the 70s and 80s is growing apace, with sales of music cassettes, which by 2012 had all but disappeared, hitting a 15-year high and vinyl also cementing a return.

According to trade body the BPI, UK cassette sales reached 80,404 last year (2019) - almost doubling year-on-year.  It is the highest annual figure since just over 100,000 in 2004.

Cassette sales have grown in each of the last seven years. Robbie Williams’s festive season release, The Christmas Present, has become the fastest-selling cassette album since compilation Now 52 in July 2002.

And Brits bought 4.3 million vinyl LPs in 2019, with sales up 4.2% - the 12th annual rise in a row, as the popularity of the record reached levels not seen since the 1980s.

Vinyl sales have surged by 2,000% since a low point in 2007, and now account for one in eight albums bought.

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Liam Gallagher’s Why Me? Why Not was the most successful vinyl album of the year.

John Lewis said the vinyl revival had helped turntables become a popular Christmas gift with a 400% increase in sales between November and December.

Gennaro Castaldo, from the BPI, said: “Sales of cassettes remain relatively negligible compared to other formats.

“They clearly have some way to go before they can come anywhere close to matching the revival in demand for vinyl that we have seen in recent years.

“That said, driven by popular soundtracks to films like Guardians of the Galaxy and various artists, such as The 1975, Kylie and, this just this Christmas, Robbie Williams, sales are at their highest level in more than a decade."

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According to BPI, streaming is now responsible for three-quarters of “album equivalent sales” - the metric used by the industry to convert consumption on services like Spotify and Amazon Music into album sales.

Just three years ago, the technology was only responsible for 36% of album sales.

By contrast, physical sales were down 22.8% year-on-year and now account for less than 20% (18.2%) of the market. CDs slumped by 26.5% year-on-year to 23.5m units.

Lewis Capaldi became the UK’s best-selling artist of 2019 with both the best selling album and single of the year.

His ballad Someone You Loved topped the end-of-year listings having racked up 228 million streams In what was a huge year for Capaldi, the artist beat Ed Sheeran’s No. 6 Collaborations Project album to the top spot in the best-selling albums of 2019 list.

In August Capaldi had actually played a number of gigs supporting Sheeran on the star’s record-breaking Divide world tour.

Another of Capaldi’s showbiz friends is Elton John, who called him earlier this year “the next British superstar”.

Capaldi, who grew up in Bathgate sold over 640,000 albums across all formats and album equivalents, including well over 250,000 copies on CD and vinyl combined, according to Official Charts Company data.

The year’s biggest hit singles included Lil Nas X’s country-rap crossover Old Town Road, which finished at number two in the chart,  Ava Max’s pop smash Sweet But Psycho which was number 6 and Giant, the result of Dumfries superstar producer Calvin Harris’s collaboration with Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, at number five.

The Herald:

For Capaldi, it all began when manager Ryan Walter, the founder of Interlude Artists discovered him on SoundCloud three years ago. After releasing his first track, Bruises, independently in March 2017, Capaldi went on to be named as one of Vevo’s Artists To Watch later that year.

Capaldi has said it is “bizarre” that he had become so famous worldwide since the release of his breakthrough single Someone You Loved in November, 2018.

His album, released in May, last year was one of the fastest-selling records of the year and led to a sold out an arena tour.

READ MORE: The comeback of cassettes

Capaldi’s journey from zero to pop hero has not stopped him using social media to wantonly tout for even more chart success, by pushing fans to get his latest song to number one in the UK pop charts for the start of the decade.

The BPI said music consumption grew for the fifth year in a row, with the equivalent of 154m albums being listened to across streaming and purchasing in 2019, up 7.5% on 2018 and reaching its highest level since 2006.

Streaming is also on the rise – the 2019 total of 114 billion plays on audio streaming services marks the first time the 100 billion landmark has been surpassed in a single year.

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Other international and UK debut artists in the end-of-year albums Top 10 include Kilsyth-born Tom Walker’s What A Time To Be Alive at number 8 and Billie Eilish at number 4 with When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Meanwhile US star Ariana Grande finished at number 7 with Thank U, Next and Christmas album chart-topper Rod Stewart finished at number 10 overall with You’re In My Heart (Rhino).

The Greatest Showman soundtrack released two years remained in the running to be the number album overall again but finished at number 3.