I'm torn on this. On the one hand, I love the idea of physical media, own the stuff you own, don't just rent it for the long term, but on the other hand, I worry about waste in the materials of making/packing physical media.
My 12 year old daughter asked me for a set of cds of some of her favorite music. That was shocking in itself since I haven’t seen a cd in years! She called them albums. Hubby and I had a good laugh and explained what albums were to us.
To be fair, an album is any coherent set of audio recordings, and can by distributed on an LP, cassette, cd, digitally, or in a number of other exotic formats.
Cassettes are awful, they can go away. Fidelity wasn't ever great on them, RW and FW suck. Finding a particular track was awful. Having to constantly rewind the last Kenny Loggins song playing on the Top Gun ST.
For practicality, the mp3 player was great. I remember getting my first iPod and I loved that thing. Loaded all my cds into iTunes, made playlists and really just loved having so much music without having to carry around cds or cassettes. There’s a reason cassettes died out.
Ngl, I was glad when cassettes went the way of the dinosaurs.
I hated having to rewind and fast forward my tapes, having players eat them, and then having to painstakingly pull them out and tape the tape back together and permanently have a lost section of sound.
The aesthetic is nice but that's about it.
They’ve been around on the punk circuit for a decade or more. You get a cassette and a link to the uncompressed MP3’s. Cassettes were great for their time but it’s a shit format.
it depends on the music you like. Some smaller label stuff only ever came out on a particular format so you get what you get. The new stuff being put out on every format in multiple collectible editions gets on my nerves though.
My 11 year old got a record player for her birthday and has asked for a CD player for Christmas. I'm glad her and her friends are discovering new (to them) ways of playing music.
Having just recently listened to the cassette version of an album I've heard digitally a bunch of times recently, I think I can actually appreciate the different sound profile the tape had. I was listening on a nicer vintage Pioneer micro stereo unit, 90s era.
I imagine this new version is similar to the new version of the polaroid camera.....overpriced. I get the desire for this kind of thing, but am unlikely to spend my money on it.
I was at urban outfitters last week and they had a whole album on cassette for sale. Had a lame cardboard sleeve cover not a chic plastic case. They also fit 14-15 songs on each side, somehow they improved tape storage. Some dude or band I haven’t heard of, we’re old you know
I love cassettes for the nostalgia factor. I did see an album of a European singer I like release an album in 2024 on vinyl, cassette, and CD. I’m here for it!
I live in Seattle and I was in a band from, I dunno, 2013-2020. Around 2015 or so, SO many bands had tapes as merch. As a 35 year old at the time, I was totally perplexed. Nobody even owned a tape player!
I think most just bought it cuz that's what the cool kids were doing. At least there would often be a digital download code in it (which makes more sense why you'd buy it).
I think much of it was to have a piece of a nostalgic piece of physical music media that they missed out on. Like a keepsake.
They were fine for their time. But I personally don't miss them at all. The reasons have already been stated by others.
Same can be said for VHS tapes. They're another medium I don't miss. Give me DVD/Blu-Ray.
I don't ever want any sort of physical media again. Having millions of songs at my fingertips online is the best thing ever.
That being said, I don't care what other people do. If they want cassettes with shitty audio have a great time.
If cassette is coming back, companies need to make better cassette players. All modern cassette players have the same guts. A cheap and basic mechanism all from the last factory in China still making them.
Nicer decks from the 80's and 90's aren't going to last forever.
CDs are still great.
https://preview.redd.it/v4ynfo4b8j9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92a50f4a99a05caeecddc461eb4a4c30d8c08a85
9$ vintage tape deck and a .25c cassette from a thrift store. I love collecting physical media including older working players. Grew up on cassettes so I love how they sound.
Young people are discovering what it’s like to own physical media. I think it’s cool.
I'm torn on this. On the one hand, I love the idea of physical media, own the stuff you own, don't just rent it for the long term, but on the other hand, I worry about waste in the materials of making/packing physical media.
My 12 year old daughter asked me for a set of cds of some of her favorite music. That was shocking in itself since I haven’t seen a cd in years! She called them albums. Hubby and I had a good laugh and explained what albums were to us.
To be fair, an album is any coherent set of audio recordings, and can by distributed on an LP, cassette, cd, digitally, or in a number of other exotic formats.
Cassettes are awful, they can go away. Fidelity wasn't ever great on them, RW and FW suck. Finding a particular track was awful. Having to constantly rewind the last Kenny Loggins song playing on the Top Gun ST.
Even 8-tracks were better than cassettes! This seems like a scam by Big Tape to make money off nostalgia and I ain't buying into it.
Big Tape? Haha
Dolby S noise reduction was rare to see in a tape deck, but did a bang up job at getting noise near CD quality levels.
For practicality, the mp3 player was great. I remember getting my first iPod and I loved that thing. Loaded all my cds into iTunes, made playlists and really just loved having so much music without having to carry around cds or cassettes. There’s a reason cassettes died out.
Ngl, I was glad when cassettes went the way of the dinosaurs. I hated having to rewind and fast forward my tapes, having players eat them, and then having to painstakingly pull them out and tape the tape back together and permanently have a lost section of sound. The aesthetic is nice but that's about it.
They’ve been around on the punk circuit for a decade or more. You get a cassette and a link to the uncompressed MP3’s. Cassettes were great for their time but it’s a shit format.
i have hope that open reel tape will make a comeback. a properly recorded 1/4 tape is my favorite format.
it depends on the music you like. Some smaller label stuff only ever came out on a particular format so you get what you get. The new stuff being put out on every format in multiple collectible editions gets on my nerves though.
My 11 year old got a record player for her birthday and has asked for a CD player for Christmas. I'm glad her and her friends are discovering new (to them) ways of playing music.
Having just recently listened to the cassette version of an album I've heard digitally a bunch of times recently, I think I can actually appreciate the different sound profile the tape had. I was listening on a nicer vintage Pioneer micro stereo unit, 90s era.
Lived through the cassette era and hated them. I lost so many good albums to tapes getting eaten.
I imagine this new version is similar to the new version of the polaroid camera.....overpriced. I get the desire for this kind of thing, but am unlikely to spend my money on it.
I was at urban outfitters last week and they had a whole album on cassette for sale. Had a lame cardboard sleeve cover not a chic plastic case. They also fit 14-15 songs on each side, somehow they improved tape storage. Some dude or band I haven’t heard of, we’re old you know
I collected all of Britney Spears albums on cassette from urban outfitters a few years ago. Don’t have a way to play them though
The tape is thinner. They’re extremely fragile.
Apparently K-Tel records lives on in spirit. They loved cramming in as many songs as possible.
I love cassettes for the nostalgia factor. I did see an album of a European singer I like release an album in 2024 on vinyl, cassette, and CD. I’m here for it!
I live in Seattle and I was in a band from, I dunno, 2013-2020. Around 2015 or so, SO many bands had tapes as merch. As a 35 year old at the time, I was totally perplexed. Nobody even owned a tape player! I think most just bought it cuz that's what the cool kids were doing. At least there would often be a digital download code in it (which makes more sense why you'd buy it). I think much of it was to have a piece of a nostalgic piece of physical music media that they missed out on. Like a keepsake.
i literally wanna buy vinyl and record player so i can listen to laufey’s music like the olden times
They were fine for their time. But I personally don't miss them at all. The reasons have already been stated by others. Same can be said for VHS tapes. They're another medium I don't miss. Give me DVD/Blu-Ray.
no they're not.
I’m not surprised, they’re probably saying the same kinds of things we said about vinyl. “It’s how the artist *intended* the album to sound!”
I don't ever want any sort of physical media again. Having millions of songs at my fingertips online is the best thing ever. That being said, I don't care what other people do. If they want cassettes with shitty audio have a great time.
If cassette is coming back, companies need to make better cassette players. All modern cassette players have the same guts. A cheap and basic mechanism all from the last factory in China still making them. Nicer decks from the 80's and 90's aren't going to last forever. CDs are still great.
https://preview.redd.it/v4ynfo4b8j9d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92a50f4a99a05caeecddc461eb4a4c30d8c08a85 9$ vintage tape deck and a .25c cassette from a thrift store. I love collecting physical media including older working players. Grew up on cassettes so I love how they sound.
Cassettes started their comeback when Guardians of the Galaxy came out. The price of old Walkmans (¿walkmen?) has gone way up too.
What?
Ehhhhhhhhhh, new model of player could be good for old cassettes. New albums probably should not be released on them.