Cassette sales have more than doubled in 2020: New figures from the Official Charts company have revealed that cassette sales have more than doubled in 2020. Describing the cassette as “the unlikely comeback kid of music formats”, the Official Charts Company said there was a 103% increase on cassette sales in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019. 65,000 cassettes were purchased in the first half of 2020 and the figures are on course to top 100,000 for the first time since 2003. The best selling cassettes of 2020 were largely in the pop genre, with 5 Seconds of Summer, Lady Gaga, The 1975, Selena Gomez and Dua Lipa taking the top five spots. 5 Seconds of Summer’s ‘CALM’ sold 12,000 in the first week making it the fastest selling cassette in 18 years. Last month (June 22), it was revealed that vinyl sales soared after record stores re-opened for the first time since lockdown. According to data from the Official Charts Company, sales in the first week since re-opening reached the highs of pre-COVID-19. Vinyl sales surged by 27.57% week-on-week to a total of 88,486 units, while CDs also experienced a rise of 11.09% to 253,779 units.
Columbus, OH | Vinyl record store Spoonful still rocking after a decade Downtown: The record shop opened during the vinyl resurgence, and has maintained a loyal customer base — even amid the pandemic. Owners Brett Ruland and Amy Kesting are celebrating with a 10% off sale on Sunday. You could say Brett Ruland and Amy Kesting opened Spoonful Records at the right time and place. In the year 2010, the vinyl resurgence was already underway, and there was no competing record store Downtown. Still, Ruland said he was “terrified” on opening day in July at their Long Street location. “I was afraid to look up to see if anybody was even picking anything up,” said Ruland, 48, who lives in Olde Towne East with Kesting, 45. The couple married in 2014. But he didn’t need to worry; customers lined up with records in their arms, and a local DJ showed up to film the event for his YouTube channel. “We were just like, ‘OK, these are the record people,’” Kesting recalled. ”‘The record people are here now.’”
Manawatu, NZ | Vinyl and music at the Hokowhitu Bowling Club: Bent Horseshoe has a big day at the Hokowhitu Bowling Club on July 25. The day will start at 11am with a record fair and at 7.30pm Pip Payne and The Strum Troopers will entertain. Payne has been a leading light of the music scene in Wellington for many years. Originally from Britain, Payne gained experience playing around Europe before coming to New Zealand. He formed and was president of the Capital Blues Club for many years and ran their Jam Nights. Payne has toured New Zealand many times as a solo artist and with bands and is well-known for taking well-known songs and reinterpreting them to give them a different feel. Warwick Murray and Dougal Spiers are the Strum Troopers. Steve Tolley ran the Bent Horseshoe Cafe a few years a ago. “I used to like inviting different musicians to come and play together and one of these was Dougal.
Sarnia, ON | Cheeky Monkey to host stripped-down, safer Record Store Day: In the immortal words of Canadian musician Neil Young, rock and roll can never die. Nor, it seems, can International Record Store Day which, in spite of a global pandemic and a halt to virtually all live music performances, will once again be taking place this year at Sarnia’s downtown record store Cheeky Monkey, though in a significantly different format from previous years. An annual celebration and tribute to North America’s fiercely autonomous and culturally significant independent record stores, International Record Day features hundreds upon hundreds of new, rare and limited edition vinyl releases from both contemporary and classic artists ranging from Billie Eilish to Paul McCartney to Steve Earle. While it typically happens in the spring, COVID-19 crashed this year’s iteration of the music shop shindig, forcing organizers to rearrange the jubilee until later in the year. Now, instead of one day-long celebration there are going to be three Record Store Day Drops…
Of Course You Can Get the Bugsnax Theme Song on Vinyl Now: Kinda bug and kinda snack, cop this summer’s hottest track. After becoming a surprise hit during Sony’s PS5 reveal event, the Bugsnax theme song — “ooOoo! Talkin’ ’bout Bugsnax” — will be released on vinyl later this year. Performed by the British indie pop group Kero Kero Bonito, “It’s Bugsnax!” comes on a custom seven-inch vinyl record in a strawberry-scented scratch-n-sniff jacket. Preorders cost $12 USD on iam8bit, with shipments going out in Q4 2020. The earworm of a theme song debuted alongside Bugsnax during the PS5 event in June. Developed by Young Horses (Octodad), Bugsnax takes players to Snaktooth Island, home to bug-snack hybrid creatures, like the googly-eyed strawberry seen on the album art above. The game itself is a first-person adventure in which you study the behaviors of various Bugsnax, according to Young Horses president Philip Tibitoski. The developer has yet to show off gameplay, though Kevin Geisler, a programmer on Bugsnax, lists Ape Escape, Viva Piñata, Pokemon Snap, and Dark Cloud among its inspirations.
