Cassette sales have climbed again since the early 2010s, with UK sales in 2022 reaching their highest level since 2003 and US unit sales up about 205% in one early-2020s quarter. The format's peak was the mid-1980s, when tens of millions sold each year, and in 1990s the UK sold around 83 million cassettes in a single year. The revival is far smaller than that peak, so it is better described as rediscovery, especially among younger listeners. Cassettes sound worse than digital files, break easily and are slow to search, yet their physical presence, collectability and the deliberate, focused listening they demand appeal to people tired of streaming. In the 1970s and 80s blank tapes also made home taping and the mix tape a form of self-expression, which the British music industry fought with its 1981 'home taping is killing music' campaign.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.