In recent times vinyls (or records as I referred to them in my younger
age) have shown signs of resurgence, CDs are still readily available and
the digital format is quickly becoming the standard choice for many
people's music. However there appears that there is a forgotten player
in the music world: the cassette tape.
For the decade of the 80s, the cassette was the main format that the
majority of consumers used to listen to their favourite bands, but with
the 90s came the CD and by 1995 cassettes were scarcely seen on the
majority of supermarket shelves, although they could still be found in
dedicated music shops until 2000, but by then they were clearly old
news.
Although I Luke music in general, mainstream artists that are constantly
played on the radio, TV and appear regularly in the charts do not
appeal to me. Rather I like to discover unknown artists through browsing
sites such as
Jamendo and
Bandcamp. I was extremely happy to see
recently that indie artists are starting to sell their music in cassette
form, albeit in very limited numbers (usually 100 copies). But instead
of simply flogging a dead horse, these indie artists are offering the
tracks in digital format along with the physical cassette. If the
purchase is made through Bandcamp then buyer is offered an immediate
download, however with some of the other music sites the cassette
includes a download code printed on a card that comes in the tape cover.
Whilst many people may see this as pointless and simply a way of hanging
onto the past, the sale of cassettes does offer some advantages for the
indie artist. Firstly the limited number means that the artist/band
isn't investing a huge sum of money. Secondly an artist selling the
cassette stands out from the crowd, it offers the consumer a trip down
memory lane as well as also giving them the digital form to sync to
their media players. Thirdly tapes aren't likely going to be copied. I'm
not saying its impossible, all you need is a USB cassette deck, but the
process is slow and the quality is considerably poorer than the files
produced by a CD rip or the audio files offered by the majority of music
sites. Most people don't have twin deck cassette players any more and
blank cassette tapes aren't as readily available as they once were.
So when you look at this from this aspect it, then cassettes may be
around, in limited numbers, for a while yet. They're not going to be
flooding the market, but there's still some life in them yet.
In recent times vinyls (or records as I referred to them in my younger
age) have shown signs of resurgence, CDs are still readily available and
the digital format is quickly becoming the standard choice for many
people's music. However there appears that there is a forgotten player
in the music world: the cassette tape.
For the decade of the 80s, the cassette was the main format that the
majority of consumers used to listen to their favourite bands, but with
the 90s came the CD and by 1995 cassettes were scarcely seen on the
majority of supermarket shelves, although they could still be found in
dedicated music shops until 2000, but by then they were clearly old
news.
Although I Luke music in general, mainstream artists that are constantly
played on the radio, TV and appear regularly in the charts do not
appeal to me. Rather I like to discover unknown artists through browsing
sites such as
Jamendo and
Bandcamp. I was extremely happy to see
recently that indie artists are starting to sell their music in cassette
form, albeit in very limited numbers (usually 100 copies). But instead
of simply flogging a dead horse, these indie artists are offering the
tracks in digital format along with the physical cassette. If the
purchase is made through Bandcamp then buyer is offered an immediate
download, however with some of the other music sites the cassette
includes a download code printed on a card that comes in the tape cover.
Whilst many people may see this as pointless and simply a way of hanging
onto the past, the sale of cassettes does offer some advantages for the
indie artist. Firstly the limited number means that the artist/band
isn't investing a huge sum of money. Secondly an artist selling the
cassette stands out from the crowd, it offers the consumer a trip down
memory lane as well as also giving them the digital form to sync to
their media players. Thirdly tapes aren't likely going to be copied. I'm
not saying its impossible, all you need is a USB cassette deck, but the
process is slow and the quality is considerably poorer than the files
produced by a CD rip or the audio files offered by the majority of music
sites. Most people don't have twin deck cassette players any more and
blank cassette tapes aren't as readily available as they once were.
So when you look at this from this aspect it, then cassettes may be
around, in limited numbers, for a while yet. They're not going to be
flooding the market, but there's still some life in them yet.
Cassette Tapes: given a new life
