Ben Hoyle, Los Angeles

Like vinyl records, cassettes satisfy a yearning for a physical object in an era of intangible digital filesAlamy

From Elvis Presley's epic Las Vegas residency to Kate Bush selling out her first live shows in 35 years in 2014, the best comebacks in music have always been the most unlikely ones.

Now the industry is waking up to what may be the most unexpected revival of them all: the cassette tape is shooting back up the sales charts.

Artists including Justin Bieber, Eminem, Metallica and the Weeknd have all put out material on tape recently. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of Hamilton, the hit Broadway musical, made sure that The Hamilton Mixtape was available as an actual tape, while the Guardians of the Galaxy films have put a Sony Walkman-toting hero and his cherished tapes at the centre of the biggest blockbusters of recent…