Cassettes started to make its way back again after the resurgence of vinyl records in 2017. Music genres like hip hop, punk and dance Music, were a great part of making it popular amongs Music listeners again. The format was more or less gone and absolete before that. In postmodern Music culture there are allways retrotrends coming back every now and then. That ment a format of the past were all of sudden supertrendy and its characteristics were in spotlight to how music should sound. Music is very much focused on whats right. That ment also looking at a format that was so wrong that it became "right". The only stock left from The BASF Company that manufactured magnetic tape that remained in the 2010's were embraced by small indiependent companys to rescue the format for new music listeners.
A format isnt all about its sonic quality, but also about its culture around it. The audio cassettes were a great part of hip-hop Culture in the 80's. The mixtape movement created and expanded the amount of listeners by passing the cassettes to friends. Cassettes were often duplicated multiple times from a single cassette. So it werent all about audio quality.
Compact cassettes inherits the reel to reel magnetic tape, but in smaller scale. Reel to reel tape has a higher frequency response and is used in studio recordings for its special sounding quality. That means that the quality of the "tapesound" is inhereted on the smaller compact cassette.
As a format its something the listener can hold in his hand. Albumcovers from favorite artists, grabs the listeners attention so much better than a digital album. Music is a abstract thing. In reallife we all need see it in person to understand it better.
When the format has made its way back to the spotlight, the medium is here as long as the listeners are intressted in having it here. When they stop caring for the format it can mean its gone forever. This is beacause of high developing and manufacturing costs. The playback devices, The parts, motors and belts. Have a common manufacturer that provide the playback engine to all of the smaller consumer cassettedecks and Walkmans.