盒式磁带又开始流行了！

Forget the vinyl revival. The cassette tape will be back on Christmas lists this year as high-profile artists ranging from Coldplay to Robbie Williams and Liam Payne release albums on a format that has come back from the dead.

The tape’s comeback has caught the industry off guard, with manufacturers struggling to get their hands on the magnetic tape needed for their production when demand suddenly picked up. The BPI, the record labels association, predicts music fans, many of them under 25, will buy 100,000 tapes in 2019, double the figure for 2018.

The last time that number of cassettes were sold was 2004, when the biggest-selling albums were by Scissor Sisters and Keane.

Karen Emanuel, the chief executive of the Key Production Group, which manufactures vinyl, cassettes and CDs, said the revival was amazing. “We never stopped producing them, but demand had tailed off to tapes for police interviews.”

Around 36,000 tapes had been bought in the U.K. by June, according to the BPI and Official Charts Company data. One of the biggest sellers was Billie Eilish, who was born in 2001 when the format was already considered close to obsolete.

The cassette of her song “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” was produced in lurid UV green and orange, making it both collectible and “Instagrammable.”

Retailers predict that Robbie Williams’ “Christmas Present” album and new offerings from The Who, Coldplay and Beck will be among this year’s bestsellers.

Emanuel said the U.K. factories that Key Production works with had been scrambling to find supplies of tape earlier this year when orders started rolling in.

“It’s difficult to say exactly how many tapes will be sold this year, but I think it will be more than 100,000,” she said.

The hit film “Guardians of the Galaxy” is credited with starting the tape renaissance after clever marketers released the soundtrack on a tape that looked like the one that features heavily in the film.

Words to Learn 相关词汇

【让人措手不及】ràngrén cuòshǒubùjí

catch … off guard surprise someone, esp. in a way that makes the person feel confused or uncertain

【淘汰的】táotài de

obsolete not in use any more, having been replaced by something newer and better or more fashionable

忘记黑胶唱片的复兴吧。今年，盒式磁带将回到圣诞礼物清单，因为酷玩乐队、罗比▪威廉姆斯以及利亚姆▪佩恩等一众知名歌手纷纷发行磁带唱片，让磁带这一产品死而复生。

磁带的回归让磁带产业措手不及，随着需求量的突然飙升，制造商们都在费力地寻找生产所需的磁带。英国唱片业协会预测，2019年歌迷们（其中许多人的年龄都在25岁以下）购买的磁带将达到10万盒，比2018年增加一倍。

上一次磁带销量这么高是在2004年，当时销量最大的唱片来自剪刀姐妹和基音乐队。

Key Production集团的首席执行官凯

伦▪伊曼纽尔表示对磁带的复兴潮流感到惊

讶：“我们从未停止生产磁带，但是如今需求减少了，主要是供警察审讯时用。” 该公司生产黑胶唱片、盒式磁带和CD光盘。

根据英国唱片业协会和官方排行榜公司的数据，截至今年6月，磁带销量达到3.6万盒左右。销量最大的是比莉▪艾利什的唱片，这位歌手出生于2001年，当时磁带已经快要被淘汰。

她的歌曲《When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?》制成的磁带采用了醒目的亮绿色和亮橙色，使其同时具有收藏和在社交媒体晒图的价值。

零售商预测，罗比▪威廉姆斯的专辑《圣

诞礼物》和谁人乐队、酷玩乐队、贝克的新专辑将是今年最畅销的磁带。

伊曼纽尔表示，今年早些时候订单量开始增大后，Key Production的英国工厂就一直忙着找磁带原料。

她说：“很难说今年会卖出多少盒磁带，但我认为会突破10万盒。”

有人认为热门电影《银河护卫队》推动了磁带的复兴。当时机智的营销者发布了一款电影原声磁带，这款磁带的外形和电影中多次出现的那盒磁带极为相似。

(chinadaily.com.cn)