6 ms·

Tape cassettes, as it happens, are actually hip again. They make cassette players now for a modern tech stack, with bluetooth etc. Bandcamp is full of artists

by gyulai 3y ago

Tape cassettes, as it happens, are actually hip again. They make cassette players now for a modern tech stack, with bluetooth etc. Bandcamp is full of artists selling tape, and sales of audio cassette tapes have been up year-on-year every year lately. More and more manufacturers are starting to spin up production again [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_tape#21st_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassette_tape#21st_century

xyst 3y ago
[flagged]
- SoKamil 3y ago
  Please do not tell him what CDs are made of
  - callalex 3y ago
    CDs use a fraction of the material and have much, much, much greater durability.
  - AA-BA-94-2A-56 3y ago
    Is he implying a comparison to CDs or to codecs over internet? Hint: It’s the latter.
    - mopenstein 3y ago
      How would one be listening to digital music? On their plastic phones they replace every 2 years? I have cassettes that are 40 years old.
      - AA-BA-94-2A-56 3y ago
        Is this a trick question? I would listen to digital audio on a computer, which I’ve had access to for my entire life. I’m 30 years old, and I’ve never not had a computer in the house. Also, most people purchasing cassettes nowadays most likely also own and use a smartphone. I am trying to understand your perspective, but I just don’t, I’m sorry.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- throwaway2037 3y ago
  In 2023, is there a scientific consensus on landfill vs incineration? It seems like many, highly advanced countries are using incineration now, including plastics. Hell, Sweden even imports garbage from other European countries to burn as a service. Deeper question: Are there any removable storage mediums that are easy to recycle? Vinyl records? Minidisc? CDs/DVDs/Blurays? Computer tapes?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- gyulai 3y ago
  FWIW, I'm under the impression (while not being an expert), that plastics actually have pretty good recyclability and just suffer an "image problem" for reasons unrelated to the actual physical properties of the material. -- e.g. "Great Pacific garbage patch", but that's just because plastic floats and someone didn't take the trouble to recycle stuff before dumping it, not because it's impossible to do that kind of recycling; Or "Microplastics" which are nasty because of their form factor, not necessarily because of the material; Or because of applications where there are paper-based alternatives and paper has a leg up due to being a renewable material. For example, according to a very entertaining little book I have [1] that debunks greenness-myths, you need to use a cotton tote bag 130 times before you reach a break even in terms of economical footprint with using plastic shopping bags. Ironically, people's homes are filling up with cotton bags now, because you keep getting them as advertising gifts by every brand that's trying to brand itself as green, and you're often forced to buy them when you're at the supermarket and forgot to bring yours, and they've run out of paper bags and are not offering plastic for fear of perceptions of un-green-ness. [1] "Is it really green?" by Melissa Hemsley
  - jrockway 3y ago
    Are there any plastic recycling success stories? For example, the PET in plastic bottles can't be recycled into new bottles. The best case is that it can be used in carpet, and probably not very nice carpet that the first world would buy. I've used my reusable grocery bags for over ten years. They have gotten well over 130 uses.
    - Symbiote 3y ago
      According to [1], about 15% of recycled PET bottles were used to make new bottles, and those aren't necessarily food/drink bottles. I suspect the quality of collected bottles is a significant factor. Here in Denmark bottles collected as part of the deposit scheme can be recycled into new food containers, but other waste generally cannot. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PET_bottle_recycling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PET_bottle_recycling
    - userbinator 3y ago
Hamuko 3y ago
I quite honestly don't understand why. Even if its sound quality was subpar to modern media, vinyl at least had a distinct advantage with its XL-sized cover art that made it easier to display the albums that you loved.
- photonerd 3y ago
  Nostalgia, retro fashion, etc. Vinyl and tape are also enjoyably tactile.
- gyulai 3y ago
  The advantages that initially motivated cassettes over vinyl back when cassettes were invented are basically still valid, for example that you can't have a vinyl-based "walkman", and that they're economical to record onto, while pressing short runs of vinyl is not economical. Indie acts have often gravitated towards CD-R rather than vinyl, because they can burn them at home in small quantities. But for mobile use, a walkman actually beats a discman, in my opinion, due to its smaller size. And, not being digital, cassettes have a kind of built-in "soft" DRM feature, in that reproduction is possible but goes hand-in-hand with a loss in quality. The mixtape / pirating / bootlegging scene helps spread the message about an act, and, if someone truly likes the music, they might go back to the original artist and buy an "official" prerecorded cassette where they get better sound quality, and a reasonable level of expectation that the money actually reaches the artist to support them. With Spotify, for example, I have no idea, as a consumer, if I listen to a lot of small acts, how much of the money I pay every month to Spotify actually gets into the pockets of those acts, or whether they're just on there because they got arm-twisted into being on the platform because of platform power. There's a lot that's good about the medium, and that goodness comes in the form of simplicity in engineering, which is a virtue in its own right.
  - zokier 3y ago
    > With Spotify, for example, I have no idea, as a consumer, if I listen to a lot of small acts, how much of the money I pay every month to Spotify actually gets into the pockets of those acts You can assume it is pretty much a rounding error what they get.
lost_tourist 3y ago
this makes even less sense than vinyl records, other than nostalgia :)
- asciimov 3y ago
  It's the physicality of the medium. It's the rattle of the cassette in the case, the sound of putting it in the player, the feel of pushing the play button. Some people really enjoy the lowfi-ness of it all, the hiss of the tape, the limited number of songs, the fact you can hand it or trade it to someone else. While I don't miss cassettes I do miss the rituals surrounding physical media. Being able to pick a thing, listen to it, and not being sold on other items.
solardev 3y ago
The pencil lobby is pleased
KerrAvon 3y ago
Cassette manufacturers are restarting, but not _player_ manufacturers. Newly manufactured cassette players sound like absolute shit. The factories making high quality tape machines have long since shut down. Techmoan has an entire series on this on YouTube.

by gyulai 3y ago

xyst 3y ago

[flagged]

SoKamil 3y ago
Please do not tell him what CDs are made of
- callalex 3y ago
  CDs use a fraction of the material and have much, much, much greater durability.
- AA-BA-94-2A-56 3y ago
  Is he implying a comparison to CDs or to codecs over internet? Hint: It’s the latter.
  - mopenstein 3y ago
    How would one be listening to digital music? On their plastic phones they replace every 2 years? I have cassettes that are 40 years old.
    - AA-BA-94-2A-56 3y ago
      Is this a trick question? I would listen to digital audio on a computer, which I’ve had access to for my entire life. I’m 30 years old, and I’ve never not had a computer in the house. Also, most people purchasing cassettes nowadays most likely also own and use a smartphone. I am trying to understand your perspective, but I just don’t, I’m sorry.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
throwaway2037 3y ago
In 2023, is there a scientific consensus on landfill vs incineration? It seems like many, highly advanced countries are using incineration now, including plastics. Hell, Sweden even imports garbage from other European countries to burn as a service. Deeper question: Are there any removable storage mediums that are easy to recycle? Vinyl records? Minidisc? CDs/DVDs/Blurays? Computer tapes?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
gyulai 3y ago
FWIW, I'm under the impression (while not being an expert), that plastics actually have pretty good recyclability and just suffer an "image problem" for reasons unrelated to the actual physical properties of the material. -- e.g. "Great Pacific garbage patch", but that's just because plastic floats and someone didn't take the trouble to recycle stuff before dumping it, not because it's impossible to do that kind of recycling; Or "Microplastics" which are nasty because of their form factor, not necessarily because of the material; Or because of applications where there are paper-based alternatives and paper has a leg up due to being a renewable material. For example, according to a very entertaining little book I have [1] that debunks greenness-myths, you need to use a cotton tote bag 130 times before you reach a break even in terms of economical footprint with using plastic shopping bags. Ironically, people's homes are filling up with cotton bags now, because you keep getting them as advertising gifts by every brand that's trying to brand itself as green, and you're often forced to buy them when you're at the supermarket and forgot to bring yours, and they've run out of paper bags and are not offering plastic for fear of perceptions of un-green-ness. [1] "Is it really green?" by Melissa Hemsley
- jrockway 3y ago
  Are there any plastic recycling success stories? For example, the PET in plastic bottles can't be recycled into new bottles. The best case is that it can be used in carpet, and probably not very nice carpet that the first world would buy. I've used my reusable grocery bags for over ten years. They have gotten well over 130 uses.
  - Symbiote 3y ago
    According to [1], about 15% of recycled PET bottles were used to make new bottles, and those aren't necessarily food/drink bottles. I suspect the quality of collected bottles is a significant factor. Here in Denmark bottles collected as part of the deposit scheme can be recycled into new food containers, but other waste generally cannot. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PET_bottle_recycling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PET_bottle_recycling
  - userbinator 3y ago

Hamuko 3y ago

I quite honestly don't understand why. Even if its sound quality was subpar to modern media, vinyl at least had a distinct advantage with its XL-sized cover art that made it easier to display the albums that you loved.

photonerd 3y ago
Nostalgia, retro fashion, etc. Vinyl and tape are also enjoyably tactile.
gyulai 3y ago
The advantages that initially motivated cassettes over vinyl back when cassettes were invented are basically still valid, for example that you can't have a vinyl-based "walkman", and that they're economical to record onto, while pressing short runs of vinyl is not economical. Indie acts have often gravitated towards CD-R rather than vinyl, because they can burn them at home in small quantities. But for mobile use, a walkman actually beats a discman, in my opinion, due to its smaller size. And, not being digital, cassettes have a kind of built-in "soft" DRM feature, in that reproduction is possible but goes hand-in-hand with a loss in quality. The mixtape / pirating / bootlegging scene helps spread the message about an act, and, if someone truly likes the music, they might go back to the original artist and buy an "official" prerecorded cassette where they get better sound quality, and a reasonable level of expectation that the money actually reaches the artist to support them. With Spotify, for example, I have no idea, as a consumer, if I listen to a lot of small acts, how much of the money I pay every month to Spotify actually gets into the pockets of those acts, or whether they're just on there because they got arm-twisted into being on the platform because of platform power. There's a lot that's good about the medium, and that goodness comes in the form of simplicity in engineering, which is a virtue in its own right.
- zokier 3y ago
  > With Spotify, for example, I have no idea, as a consumer, if I listen to a lot of small acts, how much of the money I pay every month to Spotify actually gets into the pockets of those acts You can assume it is pretty much a rounding error what they get.

lost_tourist 3y ago

this makes even less sense than vinyl records, other than nostalgia :)

asciimov 3y ago
It's the physicality of the medium. It's the rattle of the cassette in the case, the sound of putting it in the player, the feel of pushing the play button. Some people really enjoy the lowfi-ness of it all, the hiss of the tape, the limited number of songs, the fact you can hand it or trade it to someone else. While I don't miss cassettes I do miss the rituals surrounding physical media. Being able to pick a thing, listen to it, and not being sold on other items.

solardev 3y ago

The pencil lobby is pleased

KerrAvon 3y ago

Cassette manufacturers are restarting, but not _player_ manufacturers. Newly manufactured cassette players sound like absolute shit. The factories making high quality tape machines have long since shut down. Techmoan has an entire series on this on YouTube.