I do NOT for a SECOND believe that cassettes are coming back the way vinyl already has. But tapes do keep appearing on my radar lately, quite a lot actually. Example, right down the street from my house at Laurie’s Planet of Sound there is a cassette tape which actually tempted me–a Chris Connelly release I’d not heard of before due to being either out of touch or the tape itself being…gasp…new?
Then there’s the Ohio-based Everybody’s Records, which proudly displays the mighty cassette tape rack shown above. I don’t know why anyone would shell out four dollars for one, but they advertise .99 cent tapes, too and that wouldn’t be a hard sell if the cover art were intact and you are a completist. Everybody’s Records–from the photos–looks like an amazingly cool place to shop. What is it with Ohio and their excellent record stores? I am always impressed when I go there…it seems to be an endless supply of great indies.
I don’t get the appeal of the cassettes these days, but I suppose nostalgia must be part of it…do the sellers of cassette tapes also sell cassette players, too? If not, they should. Ditto for anyone selling 8-tracks. Otherwise how in the world do you sweeten the deal for someone who has old gear that’s about to die, but still wants to revel in the old-old-OLD school playback experience? Me personally, I do miss that goofy “click/clunk” of the 8 track tape machines as they switched to the next track. I don’t miss having the track change in the middle of a song, however.
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Thanks for the interesting piece.
Being an eBay seller, I’ve noticed that cassettes from certain musical genres are still highly sought after by buyers from different parts of the world. For instance, I sold some lots of cassettes by The Cure to a collector from the Czech Reublic a few weeks ago, and I’m about to put some more items up for bid. I’ve sold lots of Metal & Punk cassettes too. So I guess there’s still a demand for cassettes out there.
Vinyl was never dead, so it never came back and that’s for real… I grew up doing a lot of photography for punk and indie bands during early 90’s, I was also really into a lot of hip-hop and still am, but the whole time traveling and seeing these bands & artist they always had vinyl sometimes that’s all they had, same goes with a lot of hip-hop. but the Cassette is coming back for sure, but it will never have the credibility that vinyl has and that’s for sure… Cassettes are just a little bit more intimate thats all… I myself have a cassette label and i know of 3 or 4 other indie cassette labels, just on the east side alone. CD’s are just straight up garbage and they’re dying.
Watch this piece on BOOMBOX’s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e84hf5aUmNA
Then watch this interview with Steve Albini the master of ANALOG!
http://www.vbs.tv/watch/soft-focus-season-3/steve-albini
it’s just informative and fun that’s all 🙂
Like this so much. I’m from Vietnam, i don’t know where buy cassettes tapes?