Eight-track tape sales set to overtake vinyl as most popular analogue format

Sales are believed to be higher than Blu-ray, vinyl and Mars bars put together...

Forget vinyl, the biggest-growing format currently in the UK is eight-track tape, according to the latest figures. Data announced this morning has revealed that the long-forgotten analogue format has overtaken streaming, hi-res music downloads and vinyl to become the format of choice among hipsters and the young.

Manager of Harry's Hi-Fi, Avril Foal, exclusively told HFC: "The kids just adore its analogue sound. They love the simplicity that the format offers and they can't get enough of those cartidges and the ability to switch between tracks. Take a walk down any British high street and you'll see hipsters sashaying along with their portable eight-track playing away while kids breakdance on street corners with their eight-track boom boxes. We've sold out all of our stock this morning and are having to order more in from Slovenia".

And it's not just the kids that are getting in on the act, while pop stars like Justin Bieber, The Glenn Miller Orchestra and Kanye West have all released albums on eight-track tape in the last few days, Max Richter, Mr Blobby and the LSO are all expected to be releasing eight-track exclusives before midday today.

The Journal Of Kollating Everything (JOKE) exclusively told HFC: "Eight-track tape is currently out-selling Mars bars by two to one and our data suggests that this trend could continue to at least midday today".

Look out for a Group Test of eight-track tape players in an issue soon...

Picture credit: Shutterstock/DavidTB/Viktorus

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