Hard to say which was more painful - the rise or the fall. Shipment stats courtesy of the RIAA (units in millions).


Comments Closed
@CarlKavorkian Friday, May 27, 2011
Carl Kavorkian
cassingles were the shit! b-sides galore

gpscc Friday, May 27, 2011
I'm unsure why this opportunity even occured, so long after the intro of the CD. Was it that there was finally a large install base of players in cars?

balbers Friday, May 27, 2011
Because this was just as the internet was taking off, but people hadn't really figured mp3s out yet, and before Napster blew the doors wide open. As a previous poster pointed out, these cassingles were often times the only reasonable place to grab some b-sides or remixes. The only other place those songs might show up were on import (Japanse, European) cds which cost a fortune. Most of the time the cassingles just mirrored the tracks on the vinyl 12" version, but way more people had cassette players (especially now that the car manufacturers were adding them as standard) than turntables.
Or I suppose I could have just gotten an in-dash turntable like these people in the 50s and 60s-
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2010/04/car-record-players-other-cool-vintage.html

@DropofFUV Friday, May 27, 2011
Sarah or Drop
nirvana is one i'll admit to.

@ ExcellentOnline Friday, May 27, 2011
Excellent Online
God, I bought so many of these when I was a kid...

@NettwerkMusic Friday, May 27, 2011
Nettwerk Music Group
Who had one of these? Remember which?

@ericfritschi Friday, May 27, 2011
ericfritschi
Embarrassing to say I still have a few.

@ericfritschi Friday, May 27, 2011
ericfritschi
Embarrassing to say I still have a few.

@BubbaShelby Friday, May 27, 2011
Eric Stettmeier
I remember buying this on cassingle

Lester Harrington Friday, May 27, 2011
please, please, please don't let cassingles go retro in um... 2027

@Mrone50one Friday, May 27, 2011
Mr. one50one
I have shelves of these in my ofc..

RockTilYouDrop Friday, May 27, 2011
I still got one by The Angelic Upstarts: I'm An Upstart & Never 'Ad Nothin'

@KingOfCupsMgmt Saturday, May 28, 2011

Faza (TCM) Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Seems like the cassingle died right around the time that the cassette format did, so it looks like a bad case of delayed introduction - I mean, 1987? C'mon.
Incidentally, I really could do with some axis labelling here. What's the shipment number unit? Units? Tens? Thousands?

presnikoff Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Units in millions. I'll update to reflect this.

@Williamkurk Tuesday, May 31, 2011
William Kurk
Cassette Single was my entire childhood existence. Such good music! It had to be- it was on TAPE!

@lsrMichael Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Mike P
Who weeps for the cassingle?

@xolondon Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Stephen Sears
Viva cassingles

@sDonoho Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Metallica released a few for the '...And Justice For All' record that had cover songs as B-sides, thrown together Garage-Days-style. At the time, it was the only way to get those recordings, which made the cassingles quite collectible.

@DonaldCWhite Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Donald White
I present this graph not only because it's interesting but also because it allows me to use the word "cassingle."

moluv4nyc Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Let's hear it for the lowly O-Card!

@urnforever Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Ramzy
This is obviously not what I'm supposed to do with my time, but this made me smile. I was on the right website, at least.

@MrsHeslinga Wednesday, June 01, 2011
Amanda Heslinga
Glory days.

OUR SPONSORS
Follow Us