Death Of The Tape?
 

The days of the humble cassette tape will soon be coming to a timely end with the announcement from electrical retailer Currys that their existing stocks of blank cassettes will be sold but not replenished.

The retailer has also predicted that cassette decks will also disappear from the range in the next 18 months.

The move comes in the wake of the digital format boom, which has seen the iPod and MP3 player take over the market. Currys have said the humble cassette tape has failed to compete with digital technology, with a top-of-the range iPod holding the same number of albums as 1,500 cassettes.

The cassette tape was introduced in 1963 with sales of pre-recorded tapes in the UK peaking in 1989, when 83 million were sold. This year, total UK sales of blank tapes are expected to be below one million.

 

Noob question- cassetes are digital?

No, they're analogue. If you've finally discovered irony, well done.

I'm putting in an order for an ass-load of tapes tomorrow, and I may even do something stupid like by a pristine tape deck to keep in storage for the next million years. What a prick I am, eh?

Just because Currys is not selling them anymore doesn't mean their dead yet. I'm sure blank tapes will be manufactured for a while yet.

Actually, I just bought a tape deck because I was starting to get vexed at missing all the stuff that was only coming out on tape.

My feelings about cassettes are mixed. They are clearly an inferior format in terms of sound quality and convenience (all that rewinding and fast forwarding) but they do make you more likely to sit down and listen all the way through which is a plus I think.

Is that order of tapes of blank tapes or tapes with music on? If it is the latter, what stuff if I may ask?

Well, I picked up a load of charity shop tapes recently. All faintly obscure folk stuff, I haven't had a chance to plough through it yet. None of all that noisy ra ra ra techno stuff you like though.

It was blank tapes I was thinking about though. Perhaps this is Currys' scheme to make me bulk buy. T'bastards.

Fuck This!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And, Currys is an Indian food joint?

I am not scared.

They said the same about vinyl too. It's so boring, of course production is going to decrease and it has for now a number of years , but I'd hardly call a body that's still faintly breathing a dead person.

What about 8-tracks and wax cylinders? And those other ones that no-one bought whose name escapes me? Are we all going to be buying SACDs and replacing out CDs in the next x years? WON'T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?

A lot of them weren't cheap technology that you can afford to tape music on, so arse to them. And to me too.

lole dude... cassettes disappeared from mainstream usage a long time ago.

they will not disappear. not so soon.

Never. I'll keep them alive

That's good to hear. Cassettes suck0rz.

they do not manufacture 8-track nor 4-track tapes anymore. it is costing them money to manufacture a product few use anymore in their components. hell, people do not even have components anymore.

I guess my 4 track is going to be useless.

i saw that report yes. its a shame as its getting harder and harder to find places that sell them now.

While although a lovable format, all things pass in time.

But the constant generational change in format is annoying. I love for there to be something as timeless as the music itself.

my black metal band vassafor has only released on tape and vinyl. In certain scenes tape trading is still very much the norm. Plus its good for most people's car stereo's

Fuck Currys. I buy my blank tapes at WHSmith.

Pound shops still sell them, amongst the the cheap alarm clocks and fake barbies.

at this moment there are thousands of persons in china making thousands of tapes.

Who ever bought blank cassettes from Curry's anyway? At their prices!

Pound shops are the way still.

Incidentally, I had alot of trouble buying an aerial for my radio today because places like Curry's and Dixons have stopped stocking them. Something about Dib Dabs I was told?

i still use blank tapes frequently, but i never buy them in curry's

Is there some way I can hear this? I've been reading the book Lords Of Chaos and NZ has been mentioned a few times, but no bands. Only some guys zine and something called the Black Order.

there's no vinyl pressing plants or tape copying here in mexico, but there's still plenty of vinyl and tapes around.

There wont be any samples or Vassafor mp3's on the net, but you can order the 7" 'Southern Vassaforian Hell' from Asphixiate records in Australia, and the two earlier demo tapes from Drakaard I think (if there's any left). A lot of the recordings are over 5 years old which I wasnt drumming on, but keep an eye out for the upcoming EP as well, also available on Asphixiate.

I think you should be able to find mp3's for Auckland based band Diocletian though. They just played at the Evil Invaders festival in Australia - devastating attakk black metal and good mates of ours.

i hope that they will always be available. they are very difficult to find nowadays though, i was laughed at when buying some a month or so ago.

I have 2 fully working walkmen, a sony and an aiwa. The one and only original tape I ever bought is "My So Called Life" soundtrack. Chris Lawrence, if you're reading this, update the mustang page on this item.

NOTES
Soundtrack for the short-lived but very popular television show "My So-Called Life". 100% b-side "Genetic" popped up in a party scene on one episode of the show, and appears here on the soundtrack.
RELEASE INFO
CD RELEASE DATEORIGINLABELCATALOG #01/24/95USAtlantic82721NOTES: soundtrack CD. any cassette/LP?
I've been exposed to cds really early in my life, my dad went on a work trip to the usa and brought home one of the very first discman sony. This prevented me from growing attached to cassettes. Poor me.

in berlin i used to leave noise tapes i made laying around in public places for anyone to pick up.

there are places that still do tape only releases which is heart warming to me in many ways.

good, i'm fuckin glad the tape is dead.

Death to the Tape.

I'm not too nostalgic for cassette.

Fraying up a tape in the car stereo was fucking lame with a capital L

as long as i can still get tapes for my 4-track...
otherwise i don't really like cassettes- not for listening to music. Just 4-trackin'

Yeah, i used to get similar looks when i used to take in my walkman in, when everyone else had ipods and shit. I recently brought like 4 albums on tape for $2, so at least they're cheap!

DSG are fuckin' evil, and would like to think they set the trends in the UK and beyond... like hell they do. They also treat staff like shit if you object to lying about the extended warranties. They did the same thing with VCRs, yet over a million were sold in the UK in 2006 apparently. Tapes are never gonna get the same cultish devotion that vinyl has, but Nick Hornby has endured the survival of tapes in one form or another. There's nothing like the early stages of a relationship... "oh, I made you a tape..."

tape culture is still vibrant in underground circles. retailers will likely stop selling blank tapes, but buying bulk tapes online is the way to go!

Different tape sway, it is only 1/4 inch cassette tapes that production is ceasing not 1 inch and 2 inch reels.

Most journalists etc. these days use md, dat, flash or hard disk recorders. Half of these should if they aren't already disappear ( md and dat ). Md has terrible compression and dat, well dat is just tedious and slow with average quality.

Any studios that use tape, use 1 inch at minimum, two inch if they still like to hand splice just.

Funny, I saw a copy of a Faust record for sale on 4 track the other day. On gemm.com if you fancy it! (It was only $8)

I'm surprised that journilists still use dat. I thought it was generally a really unpopular format.

Never heard of Currys but I assume it's some big chain store thing or whatever. Meh, has vinyl disappeared because you can't buy it at Walmart?

If anything, the tape is thriving more than ever outside the mainstream I'd say. I see it appearing more and more on merch tables at gigs these days and last month I even noticed that one of the few music stores worth going to in my town is stocking them now as well, from cassette labels and self-released stuff. Not an awful lot, but they did have about 30 new releases on sale.