Mars Tapes in Manchester is the last shop in the UK that just sells music on cassette tapes in the UK, according to co-owner Alex Tadross. Business is booming: “When the Oasis tour was announced we sold out of pretty much anything Oasis. Everything flew out,” he says. Also popular are cassettes of 80s music, in particular Kate Bush, which Mr Tadross says is probably because her music featured in the hit Netflix show Stranger Things.
The brisk business at Mars Tapes is part of a wider trend of people buying and fixing old music equipment. Between 2020 and 2024, Google searches for “CD player repair near me” increased by 23%, while “Audio equipment repair near me” grew by 91%, according to trend data sourced by software firm SEMRush.
The global electronics repair service market is expected to double in size from $122bn (£96bn) in 2021 to $240bn (£190bn) in 2033, according to a report from Statista.
People are restoring old audio gear they’ve bought on platforms such as Ebay. “Things were certainly built better back then, and are much more repairable than the latest equipment,” says Mark Maher, who has quit his job to fix electrical equipment full-time.
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