when did cassette tapes go out of style
Compact Cassette In Western Europe and North America, the market for cassettes declined sharply after its peak in the late 1980s. This was particularly noticeable with pre-recorded cassettes, the sales of which were overtaken by those of CDs during the early 1990s. By 1993, annual shipments of CD players had reached 5 million, up 21% from the year before; while cassette player shipments had dropped 7% to approximately 3.4 million.[33] The decline continued, and in 2001 cassettes accounted for only 4% of all music sold. Since then, further decline occurred, with very few retailers stocking them because they are no longer issued by the major music labels.[31]
Phonograph record In 1931, RCA Victor introduced vinyl plastic-based Victrolac as a material for unusual-format and special-purpose records. One was a 16-inch, ​33 1⁄3 rpm record used by the Vitaphone sound-on-disc movie system. In 1932, RCA began using Victrolac in a home recording system. By the end of the 1930s vinyl's light weight, strength, and low surface noise had made it the preferred material for prerecorded radio programming and other critical applications. For ordinary 78 rpm records, however, the much higher cost of the synthetic plastic, as well as its vulnerability to the heavy pickups and mass-produced steel needles used in home record players, made its general substitution for shellac impractical at that time. During the Second World War, the United States Armed Forces produced thousands of 12-inch vinyl 78 rpm V-Discs for use by the troops overseas.[20] After the war, the use of vinyl became more practical as new record players with lightweight crystal pickups and precision-ground styli made of sapphire or an exotic osmium alloy proliferated. In late 1945, RCA Victor began offering "De Luxe" transparent red vinyl pressings of some Red Seal classical 78s, at a De luxe price. Later, Decca Records introduced vinyl Deccalite 78s, while other record companies used vinyl formulations trademarked as Metrolite, Merco Plastic, and Sav-o-flex, but these were mainly used to produce "unbreakable" children's records and special thin vinyl DJ pressings for shipment to radio stations.[21]