"Many people were excited by the music being on tape," he says. "There were certainly people who were confused by it being on tape, too. They'd tell us they don't even own a boombox any more." Accounting for more than 50per cent of global music sales in the mid-1980s, cassettes were quickly cast aside with the advent of CDs. But they've gradually been popping up on merchandise tables at local gigs and in independent record stores such as Missing Link in Melbourne's CBD.

Part of the reason is cost. Arun of 100 cassettes costs about $2 per unit (about the same price as a CD), while 100 30-centimetre vinyl records will set you back just over $5 each. "For underground music, vinyl will always be the preferred medium, but cassette is definitely a more affordable analog format," Camilleri says. Mark Groves, from Melbourne noise outfit True Radical Miracle, is another tape devotee. He considers the medium a true symbol of the underground music scene.

"(Cassettes) passed into redundancy within pop culture and the music industry at large over a decade ago, but have remained in use by all kinds of 'buried' networks," he says, pointing to their popularity in the underground noise and metal scenes. While cassettes are often derided for their audio deficiencies - they are prone to dropouts and hiss - Groves considers these perceived flaws part of their charm. The band's debut EP, Taste the Rainbow, was re-released on CD after the cassette run sold out.

"People were pleased they were able to play the release in the cassette decks of their old-model cars," Groves says. Similarly, Melbourne label Mistletone decided to put out Kes Band's self-titled album on cassette because frontman Karl Scullin wanted to hear it in his car. "He (Scullin) drives around in a beautiful old Volvo listening to car tapes all the time, and he really liked the idea of having his music on cassette," label manager Sophie Best says. "To be honest, we haven't sold that many. But they look awesome on the merch desk."

Still, Best hasn't ruled out more cassette releases in the future. She says the format has broad nostalgic appeal. "Apparently, cassette Walkmans are in with the hipsters, and I think oldies will always have a few tapes rattling around in their glovebox."

As director of Dex Audio, believed to be Australia's only cassette manufacturing plant, Greg Williams has witnessed the cassette's rise and fall first hand. Dex started manufacturing tapes in 1982, but it wasn't until the mid-to-late '80s that things really started to take off. "By 1987, we were doing around 400,000 a month. I don't know where they all went, but people were just chewing them up," Williams says. Now, cassettes are only a small part of Williams' business, which focuses on CD and DVD replication and duplication.

"What used to take up the factory now takes up the corner," he says. There's still the occasional request for cassettes, Williams says, mainly from bands eager to recapture their youth, but also from businesses that prefer the medium for dictation.

Ironically, while the cassette's death knell may be sounding, Williams says its audio kinks have been ironed out. "We reinvested and replaced the reel-to-reel system with a digital system. It makes quite a difference ... You get the character of tape without all the noise and defects." And, with the release of the Alesis TapeLink ($US299, $A410 RRP) in the US in January, there might be hope for those boxes of old mix tapes just yet. Essentially a cassette player with a USB plug, the product enables users to transfer their collection onto their PC or Mac. It even comes with audio cleaning and noise-reduction software.

What happened in Australia WHILE ARIA doesn't keep a record of cassette figures, chart historian David Kent believes they were first available in Australia as early as the late 1960s.

"Only small quantities of imports were available at the time," he recalls. "Local manufacture began in the early 1970s, and by 1972 most big sellers (or potential big sellers) were released on LP and cassette." The cassette, which cost about the same as vinyl upon its release, became the format of choice for Australians because of its portability, and cassette players rapidly became a fixture in new cars. With the emergence of the CD in the 1990s, however, its days were numbered. "It didn't take long for CDs to take the place of cassettes," Kent explains. "They offered all the portability benefits, the only negative being the cost in the early days."