When you’re unaware that 2026 is being touted because the return of analog, you’ve got both already logged off, or your algorithm is most uncommon. Most of us will not have missed reels saying, “For 2026 I am buying and selling my smartphone in for a Nokia 3210, a file participant, a polaroid digicam and a library card.”
My Instagram feed is awash with people half my age saying a resolve to delete their whole web presence and get a landline, then celebrating brick buildings stuffed with books as a result of (and I quote), “There isn’t any AI in libraries.”
And that is earlier than I point out the backlash surrounding Spotify’s fee fashions or former CEO Daniel Ek’s questionable investments, the rising prices of on-line cloud storage due to an enormous demand surge from AI knowledge facilities, the DRAM chip scarcity (which is able to probably drive up the cost of TVs soon – so even in case you have Netflix, you could wrestle for a display screen on which to take pleasure in it), or the prevalence of AI slop music on streaming sites…
Oh, after which there’s the omnipresence of massive brother. No, not the TV present, the truth that each time we stream one thing, it is being logged by your AI DJs and the like for additional algorithmic suggestions – and to generate your all essential Spotify ‘listening age’.
Little bit of a multitude, is not it? We’re solely two weeks into 2026 and it appears millennials (and other people a lot older – i.e. me) need to cancel their media rental subscriptions to take pleasure in easier instances. And which means proudly owning and having fun with music in bodily kind, with out the fixed feeling of being watched, judged and studied…
You can keep your new year, I’ll pick an old one
Today, I’d like 1997, please. And I absolutely can have this year, in the shape of Now That’s What I Call Music! 37 – a double-cassette compilation album comprising the “41 hot new hits” of the year. I should clarify, this is the UK variant of the compilation series, not the later US series, which came out in 2011 and featured songs such as Rihanna’s Only Girl (In the World) and Pink’s Raise Your Glass – although that compilation also sounds like a vibe and year I’d also want to get into, on another day.
Reader, I found this delightful little time capsule of tracks, alongside Now 29, Now 31 and Now 33 in my other half’s childhood bedroom. I discovered it while staying at his folks’ place over Christmas, in a cache of assorted albums on cassette including East 17’s Walthamstow and Steam (who knew he had such a thing for the London lads, back in the day?), The Verve’s Urban Hymns, Fatboy Slim’s We’ve Come a Long Way, Baby, and Blur: The Best Of.
How much?!
One of these cassette tapes (Catatonia’s breakthrough creation, International Velvet, released in 1998 and home of absolute belters Mulder and Scully and Road Rage) still bears an old £10.99 Smyths Musique price tag. Yes, that much! Because we used to pay quite a bit of money for our own little 12-song copy in physical form, so that it could be ours forever – or at least until the tape got chewed up.
The internet tells me that £10.99 in 1998 is the equivalent of £25.85 in January 2026’s money – and here we are, complaining about having access to virtually every single track in the known world for £12.99 per month (£25.85 is about $34.82 or AU$51.90, and you probably know that Spotify costs $11.99 per month in the US, or AU$15.99).
It’s time to meet the players
Regular readers may remember the FiiO CP13, because I’ve written about it in various guises: whether it’s the blue ode to 1979’s TPS-L2 Sony Walkman, (I used to be certainly alive then, thanks very a lot), the transparent version and even the Barbie in-line skating flavored option. And rival model We Are Rewind has been unveiling numerous themed transportable cassette gamers for some time now, together with a sparkly Duran Duran-themed player and even one with ‘ELVIS’ emblazoned across the front in red, every with a re-issue of their adjoining album bundled together with your buy.
This specific FiiO participant, whereas completely useful, is offered in your primary landlord beige not as a result of I am adhering to Pantone’s 2026 Cloud Dancer missive (I’m not; Phtalo Inexperienced for me all 12 months lengthy), however as a result of I actually need the cassettes and what they imply within the present local weather to take heart stage.
Can you tell me who will still care? Mmmbop…
I slam Tape 1, side 1 of Now 37 into the player, realising my poor old Gen X hand has never forgotten how to do this quickly and efficiently. The first track is Hanson’s MMMBop. Have you ever noticed how melancholy the lyrics are, given what feels like such a whimsical and carefree chorus? There’s also a slightly off-center feel to the soundstage here, like you’ve just walked in on a bunch of kids jamming in their parents garage – and actually, they’re pretty good.
We’re on to the next song, which comes in a little too soon for my liking, such is my reverie on those lyrics, but anyway: Eternal’s I Wanna Be the Only One, feat. Bebe Winans. I’m jiggling my shoulders and singing those “Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah… protect you from the rain!” BVs like I’ve never experienced a social media presence, Apple Pay or coronavirus – but I have to clear my schedule for Top of the Pops this Friday because apparently they’re doing it live.
There’s the slick modulation; there’s jubilation. I remember that this track helped me walk into the studio on my first day at ballet college. Why was I doing this? Why, because I wanna be the only one!
Ever listened to Owen Cutts’ take on old music in his weekly radio show, or watched him wherever you get your reels fix? That’s what this compilation feels like for me and my internal monologue.
Yes, Queen
My other half picks up the box beside me, aware but only vaguely interested that I snaffled it, and plenty like it, from his bedroom over Christmas. I mention that there will now be a gap at the bottom of his old corner shelf, next to the Lynx Africa. “Wait, this one’s got Paranoid Android as the final track,” he muses, adding, “It’s like Now went, ‘You know what this compilation needs? Some depression.'”
He picks up another. We confirm a piece of lore both of us remember from back in the day (because Queen’s Too Much Love Will Kill You is the first track on Now 33), that Freddy et al’s people had agreed to Queen being in these compilations only on the proviso that they would appear in the coveted first song spot. That’s how important these timely audio roundups were.
I wish I could find my own Now! That’s What I Call Music collection, which spanned 15 to 21. I remember because 15 kicks off with I Want It All by Queen, followed by Simple Minds’ Kick It In and then Fine Young Cannibals’ Good Thing.
If we do this, we also need to show up in physical form
Of course, there are issues with all of this. Cassettes, vinyl and CDs are all great to collect – and you can find plenty in thrift stores (or charity shops, as we say in the UK) – but we need to remember the artists. Yes, most big acts tend to release new music on vinyl, CD and in some cases on cassette too, but it’s important to remember that no matter how many times I play it on my FiiO CP13, Joaquin “Quino” McWhinney and the rest of Big Mountain aren’t getting any more money when I dance around my living room to Baby I Love Your Way on Now 29. I know they’d only make a fraction of a cent if I streamed it, but it’s still more than the square root of zip.
So, if we’re going offline and seeking our music fix second-hand (and physical), we need to stan. And by that I mean we need to show up physically too – at gigs and ideally wearing a bit of official merch. This is how we remunerate the bands we love, so that they can keep releasing new music. I’ve booked tickets to four gigs this year, including My Chemical Romance at Wembley Stadium (the last time I saw Gerard & Co. live was in April 2005, at the London Astoria, sadly no longer there).
You can also, if you feel inclined, sign the petition calling on Parliament in the UK to change the law to fix music streaming, in order that music makers get a fair proportion of the income, through the Musician’s Union.
As coated by NME simply over a 12 months in the past, within the UK practically £2.5billion was spent on music in 2024, however the Musician’s Union acknowledged that shockingly, nearly half of all working musicians within the UK earned lower than £14,000 in that very same 12 months. To make clear, in line with the Office for National Statistics, median gross annual earnings for full-time staff throughout all professions the UK have been £37,430 in April 2024, so it is shockingly low.
Do not assume being a musician is a ‘actual job’? Assume again to lockdown and all of the music you listened to – take into consideration your commute and the way a lot simpler it feels together with your headphones on. We have to present up for people taking part in music, if we wish them to maintain creating it for us.
A lasting future
Last thing: a bit on the kit. As I’m listening to “my” new cassettes on this little analog system, without the interruption of songs I won’t like, emails, whatsapp messages or any of the distractions that include streaming on my telephone, it strikes me that my wired Campfire Audio Clara IEMs and this participant may final for the remainder of my lifetime – not like each set of wi-fi earbuds I personal.
Sure, you’ll be able to inform me these elite IEMs are too good to endure the hiss of magnetic tape all you want, however I really like the element and area they ship. And I really like that they do not include the li-ion batteries that give their wi-fi alternate options a tough shelf life.
I hope you additionally purchase audio merchandise which can be constructed to face the check of time – as a result of regardless of my preliminary reservations, nearly each observe on my new little stash of 90s music has. Some tracks are extra related 30 years on than they’ve any enterprise being. As Michael Stipe sang in What is the Frequency, Kenneth? (which options on facet 2 of 1994’s Now 29), “Withdrawal in disgust shouldn’t be the identical as apathy.”
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