Kylie Minogue helps UK cassette sales hit 15-year high

Kylie Minogue performing at Glastonbury in June. The singer's album Golden is among the decade's highest cassette sellers in the UK. Photo / Getty Images

Cassette sales have hit a 15-year high, driven by album releases by long- established stars including Kylie Minogue and Madonna.

The number sold more than doubled year on year, while the final quarter of 2018 recorded the highest UK sales since 2004.

More recent stars such as Billie Eilish and The 1975 also helped to boost cassette sales to 36,000 so far this year, the Daily Mail reports.

Although increasing rapidly, the number being snapped up by music fans is still small in comparison to downloads and streams.

The total accounts for only 0.2 per cent of the albums market, according to the British Phonographic Industry trade body. A desire for retro collectables by listeners appears to be driving the upward trend.

The 20 best-selling cassette artists feature those with a devoted fan base interested in tangible items such as vinyl and tapes rather than digital products.

Stars such as Billie Eilish and The 1975 helped to boost UK cassette sales to 36,000 so far this year. Photo / Creative Commons image by Wikimedia user Thegreenj

Last year's Kylie Minogue release Golden is among the decade's highest cassette sellers while Madonna's Madame X has registered 2019's third biggest total so far despite only coming out in June.

The current top seller for 2019 is the debut album from Californian teenager Billie Eilish called When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Released in a range of colours including ultraviolet green, it has sold 4000 copies on tape since its release in March.

Catfish and The Bottlemen have the second highest selling cassette album of the year with The Balance.

The biggest tape hit of the decade so far is A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships from The 1975 which has notched up 8000 sales since its release in November.

Just over 7000 of those were in the first week, making it the fastest-selling cassette since July 2002.