On Tape: A Cassette Experiment

I spent a month exploring the cassette as a medium for music listening to find out why people use something I felt was out of date. Now, I’m a strong advocate for it.

Written by Felix Kalvesmaki

Illustrated by Kate Glenn

 
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Cassettes are an interesting relic of a former time. In their heyday, they found homes in boomboxes and Walkmans, in cars and collections. Nowadays, they seem like a symbol of something obsolete. Sure, you can find an artist like Rina Sawayama or Julien Baker selling their records on cassette in 2020. Sure, your local underground punk band is probably selling one at the back of their show. But it’s hard to figure out who exactly the cassette is made for in this day and age.

So, I sought to find out. I spent a few weeks researching modern ways of playing cassettes, and I even tried accumulating my own little collection. I bought a $20 player on Amazon — I’m a college student, so I can’t drop a lot of money on something worth $50 from Urban Outfitters (which, let’s face it, is probably of similar or worse quality). While I bought cassettes by some of my favorite artists (including Bon Iver and Ghost), I filled the rest of my collection with finds from local stores. I was pleasantly surprised to find a treasure trove of great punk and country tapes, especially at places like Breakaway and Antone’s in Austin.

I learned from a friend of mine that punk bands and other small DIY acts tend to release cassettes because they’re cheap and you can make them in small batches. But they aren’t the only people using the format: according to NME, the top-selling tape releases of 2020 come from Lady Gaga, Five Seconds of Summer, and The 1975. It’s easy to see cassettes as a cheap way to move album units, but they’re also a compact, cheap way to own music in the era of streaming, and encouraging consumers to pay more than fractions of a cent per stream for the art they consume is never a bad thing. It was actually fun to buy more than a few physical albums and not push $100, like I might if I tried to buy a ton of vinyls at once. Cassettes are half the price or less of vinyls, and it still feels fulfilling to hoard them. I feel like I’ve done my part to thank an artist, and I’m happy to know that, come hell or high water, I can listen to these songs as long as I have my player around.

However, I think creating a robust collection of cassettes in place of something like vinyl may not always be convenient. For one thing, there’s a reason we listen to music on vinyl: it sounds good. For another, I found it rather difficult to find my favorite titles on cassette. Fiona Apple’s Tidal, Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, and Bright Eyes’ I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning were all busts as far as Amazon went. Even a megasmash record like Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours was a hard find. Local music stores carry an even more niche selection; I managed to find a Linda Ronstadt tape at Antone’s, but even in spaces where music is celebrated in every format, the cassette felt neglected.

Yet there is still hope. A novel invention I came across re-envisions the cassette for the 21st century, with a bluetooth receiver made for a tape deck. I actually liked this idea, as I felt like I could use it in everyday life. On walks, a tape could sit next to my phone in a bag or my pocket while I listen on wireless earbuds. It’s easy to keep in a car, so you can hoard tapes in a glove compartment like you would CDs or records in a milk crate at home.

Using bluetooth to spruce up an old format isn’t revolutionary: Audio Technica’s been providing a bluetooth version of their starter turntable for years. But it’s not exactly the format you’ll like if you’re looking for pristine quality. Bluetooth players lose the analog warmth of a tape deck or record player, meaning that audiophiles should probably stick to high-quality streams and vinyl. But if you’ve already got some tapes lying around and feel bad for not playing them, $25 will solve the problem for you.

Not to mention, there are entire record labels that operate on tape exclusively to this day. Tridroid Records, for instance, runs out of Texas and caters to a heavy music crowd, but you can find tape-only labels for rap, lo-fi, pop, rock, and any other genre you could think of. Bandcamp is another great way to find some small bands with cheap cassettes they’d love to sell to you. 

I also think cassettes could provide a different listening experience than streaming tends to capture. It wasn’t until I was 14 that I began listening to albums front to back, as opposed to skipping around or making playlists. Digital marketplaces had a huge impact on how I consumed music since childhood: since I got my iPod, I got used to buying a few songs on iTunes based on 30-second previews. That’s mostly how I listened to music until high school, and I’m sure I’m not alone. Getting into a physical release like vinyl made me realize the importance of listening to an album from start to finish, and I think cassettes could do the same thing without forcing somebody to invest in speakers, a turntable, and records that go for $20 to $25 a pop.

Point blank: I thought cassettes were bad. Now, I think they’re good. Cool, even. Their business compensates artists better than streaming ever will, their newfound portability makes them a quirky competitor against CDs, and they don’t require such a high barrier for entry like vinyl does.

If you’re interested in owning physical copies of music and paying artists directly, consider investing in some cheap cassettes next Bandcamp Friday. It’s not a dead medium — it’s simply a niche one. Nonetheless, it’s worth exploring for those that want a deeper relationship with how they consume music and compensate those who make it.