We Are Rewind Drops a Barbie-Pink Version of Its 21st Century Cassette Player

Streaming is convenient, but there’s something missing when all your button mashing is done on a screen and not on actual buttons. As a mid-range Millennial, I grew up with all the fun stuff that Gen Zers are now getting into, such as 35mm film, VHS tapes, and cassettes.

That sort of thing was always more satisfying to use, even more so than the micro SD cards, CDs, and DVDs that followed. The clunk of popping a cassette or VHS into a receiver and winding the tape backward with your finger in those little geared plastic holes. It wasn’t as convenient as streaming, but since when did we start to confuse efficiency and convenience with satisfaction and fun?

We Are Rewind makes its coin by selling cassette players that merge the analog joy of using real cassettes with a few modern-day features borrowed from the MP3 players of the 2000s and 2010s, and which will surely someday be sought-after, too, just like those crappy digital point-and-shoot cameras of the same era.

The Edith WE-001 is a pink-and-turquoise version of the cassette player it’s been selling since 2023, and it just launched for $159. Put your eyeballs back in your sockets. That’s part of the physical media era, too. It just costs more.

analog base with modern features

Each player, housed in an aluminum case (no plastic case junk), comes with the usual fast forward and rewind buttons, headphone jack, volume controls, and audio input. “But because you have to keep up with the times, we’ve added a few modern touches,” We Are Rewind writes.

There’s an internal, rechargeable lithium-ion battery in lieu of the alkaline AAs that used to power most cassette players, and We Are Rewind says it’s got enough juice for 12 hours of playback between charges.

And then it’s got Bluetooth 5.1, too, in case you want to do your listening through a Bluetooth speaker or wireless headphones. That’s a clever touch, since even though wired earbuds are making a style comeback and wired headphones are typically best for audio quality, not everyone necessarily wants to ditch their AirPods Pros to listen to a tape.

“It may not sound like much, but it’s a world first!” continues the webpage’s copy. Hey, points for honesty.

If pink isn’t your vibe, you can buy a We Are Rewind cassette player in yellow, black, gray, or blue.