第1623期:The return of the cassette tape

How do you consume your music? What format do you listen to it on? Technology now allows us to stream and download our favourite songs through websites and apps. This means it’s easy to access and it’s very portable, so we could enjoy it whenever and wherever we like. So, it’s surprising to know that the popularity of some old tech is increasing.你如何消费你的音乐？你用什么格式听的？现在，技术允许我们通过网站和应用程序流式传输和下载我们最喜欢的歌曲。这意味着它易于访问且非常便携，因此我们可以随时随地享受它。因此，令人惊讶的是，一些旧技术的受欢迎程度正在增加。A number of musicians have been releasing their albums on vinyl and cassette tape. While this latter analogue technology lacks the good digital audio quality that we expect to hear today, in its heyday, it was a popular way for teenagers to enjoy recorded music. The introduction of the Walkman portable cassette player in 1979, made by Sony, meant people could listen to music on the move for the first time. By the end of 1989, 83 million tapes were bought by British music fans, but the invention of the compact disc in the 1990s changed that.许多音乐家已经在黑胶唱片和盒式磁带上发行了他们的专辑。虽然后一种模拟技术缺乏我们今天期望听到的良好数字音频质量，但在其鼎盛时期，它是青少年欣赏录制音乐的一种流行方式。索尼于 1979 年推出随身听便携式磁带播放器，这意味着人们第一次可以在移动中聆听音乐。到 1989 年底，英国乐迷购买了 8300 万盘磁带，但 1990 年代光盘的发明改变了这一点。Despite the demise of the cassette tape in the 90s, in the first six months of 2020, nearly 65,000 music cassettes were sold in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company – double the sales from the same period the previous year. Although this is only a small fraction of overall music sales, cassette tapes are physical items that can be kept and collected ­­­– not stored in the cloud. And the resurgence of the cassette has been helped by big names such as Billie Eilish, Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber, who have released their music on this format.根据官方图表公司的数据，尽管盒式磁带在 90 年代消亡，但在 2020 年的前六个月，英国售出了近 65,000 盒音乐磁带，是去年同期的两倍。尽管这只是整个音乐销售的一小部分，但盒式磁带是可以保存和收集的物理物品，而不是存储在云中。 Billie Eilish、Ariana Grande 和 Justin Bieber 等知名人士都以这种格式发行了他们的音乐，从而帮助了磁带的复兴。To listen to music on a cassette, you need a tape player or a personal stereo to play them on, but this hasn’t deterred the new younger audience ­– its recent popularity seems to be more about buying memorabilia. Gennaro Castaldo from the British Phonographic Industry told the BBC: “Younger consumers are now buying into their collectible appeal – as they have done with vinyl ­– and the more they do this, the greater the demand for labels and artists to cater to.” But although cassettes won’t replace streaming as a way of listening to music, it does go to show how some tech never dies!要收听盒式磁带上的音乐，您需要磁带机或个人立体声音响来播放它们，但这并没有阻止新的年轻观众——它最近的流行似乎更多地是为了购买纪念品。英国唱片业的 Gennaro Castaldo 告诉 BBC：“年轻的消费者现在正在购买他们的收藏品吸引力——就像他们对黑胶唱片所做的那样——他们这样做的次数越多，对唱片公司和艺术家的需求就越大。”但是，尽管磁带不会取代流媒体作为听音乐的一种方式，但它确实表明了一些技术是如何永不消亡的！词汇表format 载体形式，格式stream 在线收听portable 轻便的，便携的tech 科技，技术vinyl 黑胶唱片cassette tape 录音带，磁带analogue 模拟录音的digital 数码的，数字的recorded 录制的，录下的cassette player （盒式）磁带播放器compact disc 光盘physical 实物的the cloud 网络云resurgence 重新兴起personal stereo 随身听，便携式袖珍播放器memorabilia 纪念品collectible appeal 值得收藏的魅力label 唱片公司cater to 迎合、满足…的需要

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