The Guardians of the Galaxy The soundtrack franchise and Taylor Swift pulled in big numbers on cassette in 2023, as combined sales of the two accounted for 29% of all cassette albums sold in the US last year, according to data tracking firm Luminate. Additionally, the top five selling cassette albums of 2023, as well as six of the top 10, were all Swift and Guardians titles (see list, below).
The best-selling cassette album of 2023 in the US was the Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 soundtrack, released in 2014, with 18,000 sales. by Swift 1989 (Taylor Edition)released last October, was No. 2 in sales, with 17,500 sold.
TOP 10 SELLING CASSETTES OF 2023 IN THE USA
- Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1 (18,000)
- taylor swift, 1989 (Taylor Edition) (17,500)
- Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2: Awesome Mix Vol. 2 (16,000)
- Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3: Awesome Mix Vol. 3 (13,000)
- taylor swift, Speak Now (Taylor Edition) (11,500)
- Nirvana, Bleach (8,000)
- Metallica, 72 seasons (7,500)
- Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Mix, Vol. 1 (6,000)
- Soundtrack, Barbie: The Album (5,500)
- Phoebe Bridgers, Punisher (5,500)
Source: Luminate, for the monitoring period from December 30, 2022 to December 28, 2023.
In total, 436,400 cassette albums were sold in the US in 2023, a decrease of just 0.75% compared to the volume of the configuration in 2022 (439,700).
Cassettes accounted for just 0.41% of the total 105.32 million albums sold in the US across all formats combined – cassette, vinyl, CD, digital download, etc. Cassettes were once the dominant format for all album purchases in the US – from the early 1980s to the early 90s. In 1994, for example, 40% of all albums sold were on cassette – with 246 million cassettes sold that year out of a total of 615 million albums. Although the format now represents a small slice of overall album sales, cassettes have made a mini-comeback over the past decade. The once-almost-dead cassette went from just 50,000 copies sold in the US in 2014 to over 400,000 in each of the last two years. Once widely available in retail stores, tapes are now often sold exclusively through an artist's online store and in collector's editions.
'Guardians' & Swift Sizzle on Tape
In 2023, the four Guardians The soundtracks available on cassette (three film soundtracks and one television soundtrack) sold 52,500 copies. As literal mixtapes influence his story Guardians of the Galaxy movies, it's no wonder that GuardiansSoundtracks on cassette sell well.
As for Swift, her catalog of albums available on cassette sold 74,500 in 2023.
Combined, his tape sales Guardians albums and Swift albums totaled 127,000 in 2023 – accounting for just over 29% of all cassette album sales last year (127,000 out of 436,400).
The Guardians The albums were solid sellers on cassette from the get-go Guardians album, Awesome Mix Vol. 1released in 2014. All four Guardians The albums have sold 295,000 copies on cassette, as of February 15, 2024.
