Global Shortage of Magnetic Tape Leaves Cassette Fans Reeling

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by JozefK, Nov 5, 2017.

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  1. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dixie
    A Global Shortage of Magnetic Tape Leaves Cassette Fans Reeling

    SPRINGFIELD, Mo.— Steve Stepp and his team of septuagenarian engineers are using a bag of rust, a kitchen mixer larger than a man and a 62-foot-long contraption that used to make magnetic strips for credit cards to avert a disaster that no one saw coming in the digital-music era.

    The world is running out of cassette tape.

    National Audio Co., where Mr. Stepp is president and co-owner, has been hoarding a stockpile of music-quality, ⅛-inch-wide magnetic tape from suppliers that shut down in the past 15 years after music lovers ditched cassettes. National Audio held on. Now, many musicians are clamoring for cassettes as a way to physically distribute their music...​
     
    Platterpus, stef1205 and melstapler like this.
  2. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Dixie
  3. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Personal touch.
    Cassettes.
    I can see the appeal.
     
    Chemguy and melstapler like this.
  4. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Ditto. It’s just such a regrettable, backwards step, sonics-wise.

    But I get it.
     
    zebop and lightbulb like this.
  5. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Collectable.
    Can't do that with downloads.
     
    Dodoz likes this.
  6. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    C60 C90 ....gooooooooooooooooo
     
  7. Galactus2

    Galactus2 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    Maxell ads ^ ....and their tape....FTW.
     
    mahanusafa02 likes this.
  8. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I love that headline so much. :)
     
    Nightswimmer likes this.
  9. mrwolk

    mrwolk One and a half ears...no waiting!

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Why are we reeling back the years?...
     
    longdist01, John B Good and lightbulb like this.
  10. lightbulb

    lightbulb Not the Brightest of the Bunch

    Location:
    Smogville CA USA
    Wondering out loud....
    Can old, used cassette tape stock be recycled and reused?

    If so, but it was cost prohibitive to do so (cleaning, stripping, reformatting, etc)

    If the limited supply reaches a point of critical mass, the process may be viable at some point...?
     
  11. lightbulb

    lightbulb Not the Brightest of the Bunch

    Location:
    Smogville CA USA
    Nostalgia doesn't exclude memories of Inconvenience, Frustration, Limitation, Sound quality issues, etc

    Combined with the retro-neo-nostalgia appeal to a later generation who barely recall what cassingles were.
     
    Comet01 and Bryan Harris like this.
  12. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    I had to throw out about half of my life's collection of home-made cassette tapes a year or so ago. Steve Stepp should have made me an offer!

    But I'll let Chuck Berry have a relevant word

     
  13. stef1205

    stef1205 Forum Resident

    ...which is a good thing. It is beyond my comprehension why this crappy media has become "hip." A useless waste of plastic nowadays.
     
  14. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

  15. Ignatius

    Ignatius Forum Resident

    I believe the BBC did that in the 60s and 70s :realmad::realmad:
     
  16. walrus

    walrus Staring into nothing

    Location:
    Nashville
    Seriously. I get vinyl, when it's done right, it sounds fantastic, and while I think it's largely subconscious, I think people who buy lots of new releases are picking up that the vinyl versions sound much more pleasant to the ears than the compressed digital releases.

    But...seriously. Cassettes. Why? Other than just to be a new level of hipster. Other than being able to compile your own mixes before CD-R's, and being able to tape radio/TV broadcasts, it was a crap format. Pre-recorded cassettes were barely worth the plastic they came in.
     
    Rhett, mando_dan and Bryan Harris like this.
  17. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    That’s not my “get it”. Preventing bootlegging and being more in control of your own media. Digital theft is just too rampant. Who can really copy cassettes, or would have the patience to, these days?
     
  18. Liam Brown

    Liam Brown Forum Resident

    now i see why my girlfriend has been hoarding blank cassette tapes . she's got hundreds of them. now there is least a plausible explanation.
     
  19. longdist01

    longdist01 Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    [​IMG]

    do these "Hipsters" use or know what a pencil is...?

    Each day they're on their phones, texting away...no help there - to wind up tapes
     
    gregorya likes this.
  20. thxdave

    thxdave "One black, one white, one blonde"

    I sold off a bunch of chrome cassettes last year and did very well with them. You think normal ferric cassettes are getting scarce.....try Metal.
     
  21. Cronverc

    Cronverc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn,NY
    One question: did You ever have a good cassette deck? I mean not a crappy plastic dual cassette Technics of the 90's and such, but something that cost back then north of $700-$800? Something like Nakamichi Dragon, top of the line Technics, AIWA or Pioneer from the golden era of audio, it's like having a collectable classic car in top shape - it's a thrill! But fair enough, I don't expect You to understand that if You were born in 1981.
    And by the way late 80's - early 90's pre-recorded cassettes sound pretty good on the good deck.
     
  22. Khamakhazee

    Khamakhazee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    I had a Harmon Kardon deck and it came with Dolby B and C but I didn't like the sound of Dolby C. The hiss was gone but so was the clarity. It was kind of fun making your own best of tapes and trying to get the timing just right at the end so you don't have any wasted space. I get the what's old is new again fad like the NES classic selling out but I really don't see any need for cassettes. It's like why bring out my old VHS tape if the same movie is on bluray? If I did have any sentimental tapes I would just transfer them digitally since there is no downside to that.
     
  23. Groovy

    Groovy Forum Resident

    I trust that this situation will do a complete C180 soon.
     
    Rhett, TonyCzar and thxdave like this.
  24. MaestroDavros

    MaestroDavros Forum Resident

    Location:
    D.C. Metro Area
    Honestly I think the only real reason for this boom is hipsters and the curious going "Oooh, they were the things in 'Guardians Of The Galaxy', I want one too!" There was never anyone championing it as a format like Fremer and others did with vinyl before its comeback.
     
  25. SJP

    SJP Forum Resident

    Location:
    Anaheim
    Somewhere around here I have a dozen unopened TDKs and/or Maxells. I want to do my part to help. Where do I send them?
     
    Fullbug likes this.
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