Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette
The reality is that yes, cassettes really were responsible for a substantial downturn in music revenue in the late 70s and early 80s:<p><a href="https://i.insider.com/4d5ea2acccd1d54e7c030000" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://i.insider.com/4d5ea2acccd1d54e7c030000</a><p>Then cassettes got replaced with CDs which (initially) were read only, which again saved the market from piracy ... until online piracy with Napster and MP3 players completely crushed the music market, but far worse than cassettes.<p>Even 20 years later, the market still hasn't recovered to the level of peak CD revenue, despite the global economy growing substantially:<p><a href="https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/US-recorded-music-revs-1999-v-2020.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/...</a><p>Piracy may since have receded, but only due to Spotify / Apple Music dumping pricing.