Audio cassette tapes are making a comeback.

[Werewolf]

First Albums and now Cassettes are back. That's pretty cool!

http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/old-school-cassettes-make-comeback-consumers-yearn-antique-n438331

[libby 1957dog]

wow that great
well great for me lol
i just bought a 20 year old volvo 850 station wagon 2 weeks ago and it has a great old tape player in it ,had to dig out a box of tapes out of the shed ,some id bought back in the mid 80s , been stuffed in a box in the shed ,no special protection on and off since the mid 90s and my ford granada station wagon was stolen back around 2006 ,guitar town steve earle ,hank williams ,otis redding ,early mercury rod stewart ,jason and the scorchers they all sound great ,so warm and rich ,the format must have something going for it as most of these albums dont have what i would call lavish arrangements or production values ,long live the tape lol

[Hedji]

Thank you, Guardians of the Galaxy?

Seriously, though now the youth of today can get back to some honest to goodness red blooded make out mix tapes.

[TomStrong]

I cant see being nostalgic for tapes. Vinyl i can see but tapes tear up and sound awful to me. They were such a hassle.

[palitoy]

I honestly missed vinyl and happily brought it back into my life this year. Tapes are an old friend I outgrew, we had some great times but I ain't yearning for a lunch date.

[Mikey]

That license plate is huge

[Hedji]

I've never ditched vinyl simply because of my love for Power Records, Christmas Music, and Children's Records. But I really don't like vinyl as a sound.

When CDs hit, I was so happy to be free of the clicks and pops of vinyl. I'm old school on many things, but besides the album art, liner notes, and quaint ritual of playing vinyl, I still give CD the advantage. Audiophiles will swear by vinyl's sound warmth and fidelity, but 99.9% of us will never own the equipment to hear and appreciate that. I bought a boutique repressing of the CREEPSHOW soundtrack marketed to the Hipsters last year. It's a score I own every CD of, and know backwards and forwards. I put it on my turntable, ready to be dazzled by the richness that only 180 gram vinyl can deliver, and was sorely disappointed. I could not get past the surface noise, even on a brand new quality pressing.

As for cassettes... Aside from the aforementioned mix tapes, they can stay buried in the 80s.

[Wee67]

I feel like like you make mix folders so much more easily than mix tapes. More importantly, I just don't have the nostalgia for for cassettes. I loved being able to take my walkman on the subway back in the day, but that may be the extant of it. MP3 players are so much easier and generally sound even better.

[acrovader]

I had more cassettes back in the day than vinyl records. It was easier to return a rotten album by snapping the tape and bringing it back with the receipt telling the clerk the tape snapped in the player. I had to be crafty about it because they'd catch on to my scheme sooner rather than later. I tried at various music outlets. Sometimes they'd replace the tape with a duplicate, but I'd return later saying it was a birthday present and they'd give me my money back or I'd pick out something else. Normally, if they didn't have extra copies of the cassette, they'd give me store credit towards something else. That's primarily why I stuck with tapes. It's hard to return a record by saying it 'skips' because they could play the record and find that it's okay. I'm not proud about admitting to this, but hey, I was young and had a paper route. That said, even with old cassettes that I didn't listen to any more, I'd put scotch tape over the top two holes so I could dub over it with something else.

[HardyGirl]

Shoot, in this house, it never left! I probably own almost as many cassette tapes as I do record albums. I have 2 tape dubbers (one in the living room and one in my room), 2 cassette/radio boom boxes, 2 walkmans, a small Panasonic "cherry box" w/ radio and cassette, a Panasonic Take 'N Tape ('76 version) and my old-time cathedral radio w/ a cassette player built in the side (for my radio shows). Man am I glad I don't listen to people who thought I should get rid of my records and tape in favor of CDs and digital music. I don't have to go out and scramble for nostalgia. It's always been right here!

[Werewolf]

I see the resurgence of Vinyl and now cassettes as small push back against the corporate enforced all digital future. You just can't replace the experience of holding an actual physical object with a digital copy. Some people, of course, also prefer the warm sound of analog recordings. Lastly, I think, there are people that don't want to give up their rights of ownership of a physical object in trade for limited use license of a digital copy.

Vinyl and cassettes comeback is also surprisingly not just nostalgia driven, according to the video I linked, younger generations that never had or experienced vinyl and cassettes in their prime are a large portion of their resurgence in popularity. Realistically, I don't see vinyl and cassettes ever getting back to the levels of mainstream popularity they once enjoyed. But I no longer fear the formats becoming extinct either. I think they will now always enjoy a comfortable niche.

I hope I can now get a good quality cassette Walkman again.

[acrovader]

Frankly, I don't think vinyl is very practical for me. The sound may be 'better' than a MP3 file, but I enjoy the convenience of the digital format. I can't see having to put a record on when ever I want to hear one or two songs. Plus, so much of the new music today isn't worth full price of the album. More often than not, there's only a few good songs on an album- why pay $20 (or more) for a record when I can just download those songs? Plus all these streaming services allows me to preview the music before I decide to buy. If there is an album that is worth full price, I have no qualms buying a vinyl record. Even with that, many records come with a key to download the songs digitally, too. With all the music I listen to, I just can't afford $20 or more when I can download the music for a fraction of that amount. Since 'disposable income' is a thing of a past, digital downloads are really only what I can afford these days. Sure, I'd like to have a hard copy of the music, but I got everything backed up online and elsewhere.

[Werewolf]

To each their own. I'm personally in no rush to give up my rights of ownership in trade for the convenience of having a limited use license of a digital copy. I'd also deeply miss the experience of analogue sound and holding and collecting physical albums.

[sprytel]

I see the romance of the mix tape... beyond the thought that went into the "perfect mix", it took time to get all the songs on there, the tapes were hand-labeled... there was something much more personal about it all.

That said... cassettes sucked. The tape broke. Fast forward and rewind were slow. And they were noisy. As much as I have nostalgia for mix tapes, I would not want to go back to cassettes.

[emeraldknight47]

Ah, cassettes, I had (and still have) many. There is something to be said for having a physical incarnation of the music you enjoy in your hands, whether it by vinyl, cassette or, yes, even an 8-track, as opposed to having the music all floating around out in the ether, although I have to admit, I do like the speed with which you can get to your favorite tune on a CD or via and digital file and I don't have to worry about either format getting hopelessly tangled in the player until it becomes a mangled mess of magnetic tape.