Cassettes: Down But Not Out

donate your old mixtapes

Cassettes: Down But Not Out

These days, cassette users trying to explain their preference for the dinosaur format have got to feel like Djay trying to push his demo on Skinny Black. They're still popular in other parts of the world—there's a reason there's a blog called Awesome Tapes From Africa—but in America they're pretty much toast. Still, this L.A. Times story, complete with obligatory High Fidelity reference, wants to assure you that the format is hanging in by its fingernails thanks to the blind, audiobook buyers (which we noted last year), archivists, the elderly, folks attempting to convert other people to Christianity, and related "non-traditional" markets:

The Library of Congress' National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped has relied on cassettes for its audio books since the early 1970s.

"We have found cassettes to be durable," said Jane Caulton, the program's spokeswoman. "They have been cost-efficient. And they have been easy for our customers to use."

Tapes can carry a Braille label to help blind users determine what's on them, and that wouldn't work well on CDs because the label would interfere with the operation of slot-loading players.

The library is preparing to switch to a digital medium for its audio books, but that transition depends on getting Congress to approve funding and won't be done until 2012 at the earliest.

And all you budding explorers/missionaries/grifters can forget digital media; apparently the iPod is not a good idea if you're planning on kicking Indiana Jones/Jim Jones-style this summer:

Tapes' durability is a key selling point for groups doing missionary work because they won't scratch and aren't as heat sensitive as CDs. "You can take a cassette player out in the middle of a jungle or desert and it will work," Stepp said.

Still, no one quoted in the article is predicting the brief spike in cassette nostalgia (I have one I bought from a techno/noise one-woman-band at a show six months ago that I've still yet to be able to play) will force a small-scale, vinyl-style comeback. But the president of Lenco-PNC, which has the last cassette-producing assembly line in America, thinks we haven't seen the last of the format for a little while longer:

"It's hard to believe we're going to ever see a product last this long in the industry," he said.

Reelin' In The Years [L.A. Times via tipster "1 comment from Ned Raggett"]

4:03 PM on Thu Aug 9 2007
By jharv
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8 comments

Comments

by somegirl at 04:38 PM on 08/09/07
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What about the entire experimental music scene (including both DIY noise music and lo-fi bedroom production type stuff)? Tapes have always been alive and kicking in those realms, being the preferable recording form for many artists. In fact, I have been seeing more and more tapes everywhere lately... at shows, galleries, exhibitions, via independent labels.

They have become more of a desirable purchase for some because they are more personal (and nostalgic) - you feel like you are actually purchasing a substantial "something" rather than a mass reproduced jewel-case piece of nothing.
by somegirl at 04:44 PM on 08/09/07
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@somegirl: as to the jewel case piece of nothing... I was referring to mass market cds.
by Ned Raggett at 04:54 PM on 08/09/07
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I really should adopt that as an alternate name.
by dippinkind at 05:09 PM on 08/09/07
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i do love the cassettes, but i don't find it so "hard to believe we're ever going to see a product last this long in the industry"... phonograph discs had already been around 85 years before cassettes were introduced, so unless they stop making those but keep making cassettes for 86 more years I believe that product will be lasting longer.
by xtianrut at 05:16 PM on 08/09/07
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There's never been a better way for a shy music geek to say, "I like you" than, "Here, I made you a mix-tape."

Playlist? Meh.
by acisnoone at 06:11 PM on 08/09/07
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cassettes are crucial. I still operate in cassettes. Frankly, I feel like there is an anti-cassette bias in America. Example: when I went to replace my car stereo with a tape deck that actually worked, I found out that I couldn't because they had been phased out. So, now I can't blast rock the bells while I roll on the street. Also, I do like cassettes more. They are sturdier and can hold more than a cd.
by the earl grey at 03:18 AM on 08/10/07
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I am a proud sony walkman user: for 25 years !!!
cassettes ARE more durable than other media- except for the rare one that gets eaten

I do not own an ipod. i have a library of thousands of cassettes & I still pull out 80s & 90s tapes & play them with much relish & fine audio quality !!!

my cds skip much more than my tapes , and if i played vinyl as much as sm of my fave tapes, itd be all click & fuzz now !
by katieee at 12:03 PM on 08/10/07
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@the earl grey: Amen brother. I treat my CDs and tapes with equal carelessness and I have many more unplayable CDs as a result. But because I listen to tapes so rarely, they double as little time machines. Mixtapes from sixth grade (most of which prominently feature "Feed The Tree"), the first Smiths albums I ever bought... ah, that brings me back. And there is nothing like a mixtape from a friend or a crush. Mix CDs will never have the same appeal.