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Media Entertainment

Cassette Tapes On The Wane 339

Posted by Zonk from the click-click-click dept.
jonerik writes "The BBC has an article on the current status of the once-popular cassette tape in the UK and elsewhere. It's been a long climb up and a long fall down for the audio format introduced by Dutch electronics giant Philips in 1963. Having sold 83 million units in the UK at their 1989 peak, cassettes sold just 900,000 units in the UK last year. And yet the cassette soldiers on in the West in niche applications - particularly in the audio book market - and in other countries where CD and MP3 penetration hasn't been as extensive. From the article: 'Keith Joplin, a Director of Research at the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, said that Turkey still sells 88 million cassettes a year, India 80 million, and that cassettes account for 50% of sales in these countries. In Saudi Arabia, it is 70%.'"
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Cassette Tapes On The Wane More

Cassette Tapes On The Wane

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  • Saudi Cassettes (Score:2, Funny)

    by Rei ( 128717 )
    In Saudi Arabia, it is 70%

    And every last one of them begins with "La illaha il Allah". :)

  • Haven't used one in a LONG time... (Score:3)

    by Iphtashu Fitz ( 263795 ) on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:17PM (#12845917)
    Despite the fact that I have a 4-track recorder that I used to use a fair amount to mix sound effects for my theater-related work, I probably haven't used it in a couple of years. These days I do all my mixing on my PC using a software-based 4-track editor then dump the output directly onto a CD or minidisk.
    • I still have a sizable collection of cassettes (about 150), but they're showing the signs of age. I just had one I'd bought in 1994 start going warbly on me, and its a fate I expect from all of them. My tape deck is also nearly twenty years old, and sooner or later it's going to bite it as well.

      I've been using P2P to download replacements, but that apparently is evil and nasty. I'll probably end replacing some, but there's just way too much money in those tapes for me to go down to the record store and

  • old school (Score:2, Interesting)

    by bad_outlook ( 868902 )
    Cassettes, and even Cassette-singles - a short lived 45 type of try - were so cool back in the day. Get a good Nakamichi tape deck (dragon anyone?) and keep the tapes out of the sun and you had some great quality. Plus, once CDs came out, tapers went nuts getting most of the quality (cds at that time were not well done) at almost no cost. Tape decks were the standard in cars, as most people still have them in any car > 10 years old.

    I hope that anything that out'dos CDs come back to a smaller, more po
    • ...and keep the tapes out of the sun and you had some great quality...

      I remember when, as a child, I first discovered that tapes magically stuck to the small U magnet I had received as part of a science kit. "Mom, look!" I said as I picked up her new Moody Blues tape off of the coffee table with my magnet that cold Christmas morning. Needless to say, my mom received a replacement tape the next day :)
    • When I wanted a Car with a CD player, the brand new car I bought didn't even have it available as a factory option.

      This time around I wanted iPod connectivity, but my new car came standard with a 6 disk changer in the glove box.

  • How long before CDs and DVDs?
    • Nothing on the horizon. Nothing really has the size efficiency, and quality of DVDs and CD.

      I could go for smaller discs though.
      Same quality, but 1" discs.

      I'd worry about losing them though.
    • A long, long time. When people talk about the death of the CD, they always point to the 5.25" floppy. But the fact is that the cassette was used as a computer storage medium at the same time as the 5.25" floppy. I remember because my Atari 800 had both. Higher capacity floppies (and random access) killed the cassette as a computer storage device. But the fact that it was still used for music distribution means that the cassette is still viable today. (It is trivially easy to find a cassette deck to play mus

  • Oh that's too bad (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:18PM (#12845926)
    I just love it when I'm driving down the freeway, the stereo goes plop-plop, the cassette pops out and the entire dashboard looks decorated like a christmas tree with overflowing tape. It's just not as festive with CDs...

    • Re:Oh that's too bad (Score:4, Funny)

      by rubycodez ( 864176 ) on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:28PM (#12846058)
      to get festive with a CD requires a microwave oven, and it's much prettier.

    • Re:Oh that's too bad (Score:3, Insightful)

      by dj245 ( 732906 )
      I just love it when I'm driving down the freeway, the stereo goes plop-plop, the cassette pops out and the entire dashboard looks decorated like a christmas tree with overflowing tape. It's just not as festive with CDs...

      Apparently shoddy cds can shatter at high speeds. I've never seen or heard of it from my friends though.

      But anyway, it is almost cunningly smart of these countries to rely on this old proven technologies, and skip technologies that are redundant. Iraq, for example, seems to be skipp

  • Sum (Score:2, Interesting)

    by 823723423 ( 826403 )
    [1]
    The music industry itself, however, remained concerned about cassettes, in particular the ability of people to record music on them

    [2]
    However, while cassettes are disappearing quickly from the music stores, they are clinging on in the UK in bookshops

    [3]
    However, terms such as fast forward, rewind, record and pause, everyday words bequeathed to us from the tape era, ensure that in the English language at least, the legacy of the cassette will survive
    • The music industry itself, however, remained concerned about cassettes, in particular the ability of people to record music on them

      No it isn't, because there's a major difference between analog recordings (especially slightly crappy ones like on bootleg cassette tapes) and digital ones: the sound quality decreases rapidly with each copy-of-a-copy. Which means only professional piracy, from a master tape or CD, is to be feared.

      However, terms such as fast forward, rewind, record and pause, everyday words
  • ....the countries that still use 8 Track Tapes?
  • Man, I have bought albums on cassette, then CD, then the remastered CD, then the DVD Audio... then MP3... and I am young, I am sure there are some of you that had some on record and 8-track...

    New formats, old formats.
  • I can see this, I haven't had to buy a new blank cassette since I bought my bulk demagnetizer...

  • Yay! (Score:5, Funny)

    by RickPartin ( 892479 ) on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:19PM (#12845942) Homepage
    Good riddance! Cassette tapes allowed easy duplication of music between friends that destroyed the music industry! Oh wait no it didn't.
    • I was just looking at a book about mix tapes in the book store. In the intro the author talks about how records at that time came with warning stickers saying that home recording was destroying music.

  • Philips? (Score:2)

    by PCM2 ( 4486 )
    It's been a long climb up and a long fall down for the audio format introduced by Dutch electronics giant Philips in 1963.
    Lucky thing it was Philips that invented the compact disc, too, or they might be pretty steamed.
  • Just like vinyl, which has been on the wane for decades, cassettes aren't going anywhere anytime soon...

    Sure they're not the most high fidelity or durable or anything, but when it comes to just throwing down a quick recording of something, they're perfect, and the sheer number of cars and people with tape players and whatnot guarantees that there will always be a market for them..

    and heck, 900,000 units ain't bad...

    don't throw out your tape deck yet, that's for sure!
  • It was only a matter of time before this format fell out of favor.

    It has a very limited life.
    The audio qualiy is poor
    and it has a very inefficient size and shape

    Oh well, RIP cassette tape.

    • It has a very limited life.
      The audio qualiy is poor
      and it has a very inefficient size and shape

      The "official" lifespan of a cassette is somewhere between 10-15 years. Though much like a compact disc it's longevity can be promoted through good storage.

      Audio quality has a lot to do with the quality of the device that records and plays it.

      I would argue that it's size and shape are actually quite efficient, considering that it contains moving parts and a few hundred feet of tape.

      Personally, I find casse

      • "The "official" lifespan of a cassette is somewhere between 10-15 years. Though much like a compact disc it's longevity can be promoted through good storage."

        Storage time, or being used?

        I had tapes blow up after the span of just over a year back when I used tapes.
        • Storage time, or being used?
          I don't know, that's all I could find based on a few Google searches. However, that being said I have cassettes from the late 70s that I still play on a regular basis that still sound pretty good (full range, little to no noise). Maybe I'm lucky because of where I live (Alberta), it's dry here and for the most part the most extreme temperature ranges my stuff will go through is between 17C and 35C outside of direct sunlight.

  • Didn't See That One Coming (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:21PM (#12845969)
    I wonder if this could happen to floppy diskettes too?
    • All Dell desktops come by default without a floppy drive. You have to pay an extra $13 for one when you configure it. And all their laptops, if you purchase a floppy drive, come as a USB attachment. It is slowly happening

  • I'm new at this, but... (Score:3, Informative)

    by OakDragon ( 885217 ) on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:22PM (#12845983) Journal
    Turkey still sells 88 million cassettes a year, India 80 million, and that cassettes account for 50% of sales in these countries. In Saudi Arabia, it is 70%

    In Soviet Russia, cassette tapes you!

    • Re:I'm new at this, but... (Score:5, Funny)

      by grungebox ( 578982 ) on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:39PM (#12846211) Homepage
      In Soviet Russia, cassette tapes you!

      Since you're new, I'll forgive you. But here are your problems:
      1) The previous statement said "Turkey sells 88 million casettes..." Your retort is not parallel. The correct response is, "In Soviet Russia, casette sells you!" or something equivalent.
      2) I noticed you're sitting pretty a score of 1. To increase that score, you nowadays can't just make a lame Soviet Russia joke. Throw in those now-popular old people in Korea, perhaps. Maybe write "I know I'll get modded down for thus but..." and then whatever. That's a surefire way to get to 5. Or you could say something that alludes to "In Soviet Russia" without actually writing it. For example, "You know the editors are just baiting us by saying 'In Saudi Arabia...'", except say something funny instead of that.

      By the way, I know I'll get modded down for this whole spiel.
      • "I know I'll get modded down for thus but..." I can't resist:

        In Saudi Arabia, the camel rides you!
        In Saudi Arabia, the sand blows you!
        In Saudi Arabia, the dessert eats you!

        "That's a surefire way to get to 5."
        we shall see, because the jokes sure arent funny enough for a 5.

        And yes, spelling errors are intentional
      • By the way, I know I'll get modded down for this whole spiel.

        Not really; that particular paragraph really merits an Insightful...

  • Che Guevara is still dead.

    Exactly who thought cassettes had a bright future? Are they speculating in Texas oil companies and Californian gold mines too? Jeez...

  • Music? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by geophile ( 16995 ) <(jao) (at) (geophile.com)> on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:23PM (#12845999) Homepage
    You can store music on them? That's cool.

    I used to use them for mass storage on a TRS-80. And my 4.77 MHz, 16k IBM PC supported cassette storage. Didn't need it though, thanks to the two 5" floppy drives, which stored, I believe, a total of 720k.

    • Re:Music? (Score:3, Funny)

      by badfrog ( 45310 )
      I was the hero of the local CoCo club when I was 12 because I managed to make a "backup" of the Zaxxon game casette tape, which had semi-copy protection and couldn't be resaved from memory like most other TRS-80 games could.

      In one of the biggest forehead slappers ever, the cries of "Wow, how did you do it?" by the older grizzled computer geeks was replied to by:

      "I put it in my boom box and dubbed it."
  • I tried to RTFA but it told me to flip it over to side B and then all the tape came out of the case.

    Guess I'm going to have to buy the white album again...*sigh*

  • time for computer upgrade (Score:5, Funny)

    by yagu ( 721525 ) <yayaguNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:24PM (#12846015) Journal

    With the threat of cassette tapes going away, what does this mean for me and my TRS-80? Are there CD Burners for the TRS-80? Help!

    • With the threat of cassette tapes going away, what does this mean for me and my TRS-80? Are there CD Burners for the TRS-80? Help!

      Okay, dig this, I have the solution for you:

      get one of these so-called "MP3 to cassette" adapters (which are just a generic way to feed sound to a cassette deck from some device with a regular 3.5 audio jack) and feed it your programs on CD.

      I have all my ZX-81 programs stored on CD and it works just dandy. MP3'ing them should work too, so you can store your TRS-80 programs on

    • this may help [google.com]

      Back on topic. Good riddance! I'm glad tapes are gone. When CDs first came out, I liked the fidelity of them and that they could play more than 20 minutes before flipping them over, but I didn't like that they did not record.

      Even "back in the day", I thought tapes were only useful for making portable (possibly pirated, yes this is not new) recordings of my LPs so they could play in my car or walkman. I always hated tapes because of the lack of indexing songs (no the "listen for a quiet
  • I have seen that you can get adapters for connecting a MP3 player through the cassette via. a "adapter tape".

    What I don't understand is why nobody makes a cassette that contains a tiny MP3 player and eats a memory stick.

    Cool product for all us who a not blessed with the latest and greatest in car-radios and also don't want a portable MP3 player.

  • Durable (Score:2, Insightful)

    by RickPartin ( 892479 )
    The one thing I miss about cassette tapes is how durable they were. Now the newer music CDs that are coming out don't even let me back up my music. CDs only last for a few minutes in my grasp until they get scratched up and explode.
    • Now the newer music CDs that are coming out don't even let me back up my music.

      Take the plastic thing back to the store and ask for a CD. The DRMed stuff does not count as a real CD and _should_ not purport to be one by using the CD logo.

      CDs only last for a few minutes in my grasp until they get scratched up and explode.

      Please stay away from my CDs and anything else of value that I own and my workplace. Thanks.
  • You mean that silver stuff that holds all my stuff together? You can record on that? Weird!

  • Audio Books (Score:5, Interesting)

    by NetSettler ( 460623 ) <kent-slashdot@nhplace.com> on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:28PM (#12846047) Homepage Journal
    Audio books have all seemed to be switching over to CD-ROM, but it makes me sad. I don't really care about ultra-high fidelity when being read a book. What I do care about is not having it lose my place when I have to stop the car, etc. I rarely stop on a chapter boundary. And it's rare for audio players to remember the CD's their position well under all the circumstances they need to in order to make Audio Books on CD really work.

    So I don't doubt there's been a decline in cassette audio books even--it's obvious at the stores. But I think it's premature, at least for that genre.
    • every car sterio i have seen restores to the same spot on CD audio, my CD player does so in resume mode, it's a Panasonic SL-MP50
      • And your cd player remembers the location you stopped for every cd you use in it? What happens when you want to listen to something else for a change, and then go back to the audiobook?
        • that would actually be really cool, but no i have never seen a CD player capable of that, though it shouldn't be too hard

          • Re:Audio Books (Score:3, Interesting)

            by Longstaff ( 70353 )
            My new Sony DVD player has a 40 disc memory for this; I'd like to think the same thing will make its way to car decks if it's not already there.

        • Re:Audio Books (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Scorchio ( 177053 )
          Or even pop the audio book CD out of your car CD player and continue playing it on your home audio system. The CD would need a writable area to record the last play position.
  • I know that cassettes are still popular in less developed portions of the world, but they've basically gone out of style in America. How long until cassettes in good condition become collectors items?

    If you browse around on some music stores, old vinyl records are going for several hundred dollars, whereas a CD of the groups music is priced regularly. Just because they've gone out of style, doesn't mean you should throw away your cassettes. In 50 years who knows how much money they might be worth, espec

    • Vinyl is still valuable for several reasons: 1) a small, but vocal group of people insist that they sound better than CD; 2) DJs, particularly hip-hop DJs, use vinyl; 3) there is still music that is only available in vinyl. None of those factors apply to cassette tapes. 1) nobody thinks cassettes have great sound; 2) nobody DJs using cassette; 3) might be true, but not to the extent of vinyl.
      • I've heard stories of Eastern European DJ's from the late 80's DJ'ing using casettes, they would add a little platter on one of the tape spindels and use this to brake or push the tempo for beatmatching.
        Not that I'd ever consider this, but respect is due for these DJ's who used what was available to them.

        The early house DJ's also used to play stuff off reel to reel tapes - in particular the original mix of Phuture's Acid Trax was chewed up in a tape machine, the version you hear now lacks the original voca
  • Cassette Tapes On The Wane

    Seriously, is anyone, besides the mentally handicapped, the recently comatose, and Poison [poisonweb.com] fans, reading this headline and going, "Whaaaa, cassette sales are down in the US and UK?", and if so, what are the chances that they know what the word "wane" means?

  • the lost art of the mix tape (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CoffeeJedi ( 90936 ) on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:29PM (#12846074)
    A friend and i were just discussing the mix tapes of our youth the other day. When you'd strive to make sure the song was cut in EXACTLY. How you'd try to fill to the exact end of the tape. How you could fill in with sound effects from tv shows. Waiting for hours for your favorite song to come on the radio, then carefully editing around the dj chatter. Giving or recieving a mixtape as a gift really MEANT something.

    CD's are just too easy, a few minutes on P2P or the iTunes store, and you're done. You kids don't know how good you got it! We had to walk uphill both ways in the snow to get to the tape recorder, and.....
    • ...the asshole next door starts using a poorly shielded power tool that messes up the FM reception so your Fit the Third tape is full of intermittent "hissssssSSSSSSSS". (Well, more hiss than usual)

      Ah... childhood memories... :)
    • I had one of those AM/FM/cassette/phonograph stereos that I made numerous mix tapes with. Ah, I miss being able to do that.

      I also remember pranks that we used to do to people, like record their snoring at night - just to prove to them that they did - then play it back in front of everyone. Try doing that with a CD.

      Or how about recording something, say - a sound. I have a whole side of a ninety minute tape with the sound of the dishwasher running on it. Why, you ask? Because my son, as a baby, would fa
  • http://hellebore.aa.stodge.org/episode8.html [stodge.org] This guy makes an art-form out of purposefully discarding casettes full of strange and alarming music; He calls what he does tape-dropping, and while technically the same thing can be done with CDs, he appreciates the rough-seedy aspect of casette-tapes.
    • Speaking of dropping tapes, we once had a DLT 4 tape go bad, so out of boredom I pried the cover off and wedged the corner of the cartridge in one of the ceiling panels so that the tape could freely despool.

      Now, I have no idea how long one of those tapes actually is, but it's LONG. The thing was fluttering away for quite a while, building up a huge pile of loose tape on the floor.

      All of this got me thinking - what would happen if you tossed one of these out of a plane at 10,000 feet? Would the air resis
  • Anyone remember the childs video camera that would record video in black and white onto audio cassette tape (circa 1985)? I don't remember who made it (may have been Fisher Price), or what it was called, but I had one as a kid, and I wish I could find it now. Anyone remember the name?
  • Yeah, I've noticed the audio book bit. In the last year I've gotten into audio books thank to Audible for my iPod. I also like to listen in the car, but for that (since I don't bother hooking my iPod up to my car) it requires a CD. Cassettes? I haven't owned a player for years. I certainly have no intention of buying a cassette tape.

    But look in a bookstore at the audio book section and it's cassette tapes almost all the way. A few CDs are included, but ypu really have to hunt them down. But who use

  • Cassettes (Score:5, Informative)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <`imipak' `at' `yahoo.com'> on Friday June 17, 2005 @03:50PM (#12846321) Homepage Journal
    Type IV cassettes were comparable in quality to a CD and about the same sort of price, although most stereos didn't have the ability to take advantage of anything above a Type II.


    They were a lot more durable, too. CDs scratch a lot more easily, and you can't repair them with scotch tape.


    Because they were analogue devices, you could play them at variable speed or even in reverse, which meant you could get some really strange effects if you tried. You can't really do that with a physical digital system, you'd have to read the information into RAM and then vary the sample speed.


    CDs and DVDs decay rapidly in UV light, which means they are worse than useless for long-term storage. Tape, on the other hand, can remain in extremely good shape for decades.


    Finally, tape systems are simpler and mechanical, which means that they can be maintained in countries that have little or no technology. I would really not want to try to replace a 16-bit DAC chip in a CD player in the middle of the Sahara desert, but unclogging a jammed lever would be relatively easy.


    (For that matter, given the choice of making a DAC chip from scratch, or winding copper to make a motor, it's fairly obvious as to what the minimum level of technology you'd need would be.)


    That's not to say that digital formats suck. Well, most do - they're low-cost and low-grade - but that's because manufacturers are cheapskates and not because the concept is flawed. Digital formats should be "better than live", because stage microphones are generally poorer than studio microphones, studio power should be a great deal "cleaner", and RFI interference should be much more controllable.


    In reality, CDs are 16-bit 44.1 KHz lossy recordings on aluminium disks (the cheapest type you can go for, which means there may well be errors in the recordings, as well as having no meaningful life-expectancy). Live digital instruments (such as professional keyboards) are often 20- to 24-bit, 192 KHz, and lossless digital amplifiers have been around since the 60s. (Though damn-near lossless high-end analogue amplifiers have been around about as long.)


    What we're getting is third-rate crap that only rich corporations can even maintain, which means most consumers treat such devices as disposable. And then people wonder why those who can't afford, or don't even have access to, those rich corporations opt for something that - for all intents and purposes - is just as good but much more useful to them.


    For further notes on this, you might want to check out the clockwork radio (1 hour+ of listening time) that is popular in Africa. When you can't go round the corner for batteries, low-tech solutions that produce high-tech results are going to be popular.

  • I just went and test drove a Nissan 350Z - beautiful car. But it has a damn tape deck in it! What the hell is that all about? You can't get it without the deck. I'm actually considering it a major strike against my decision to purchase the car because I think it may limit resale in 5 years when it's REALLY seen as a technology that's behind the times. I'm driving a 2001 neon now, and it's also got a tape deck in it i've never used - hell, I don't even know if it works. What gives with these manufacturers sl
  • You can take a tape out of one tape deck (say at home), put it in another (like your car) and pick up exactly where you left off and without having to think about it. You can't do that with read-only media such as CD. As such, CD is only useful as a means of delivering content, which is then copied to computer and iPod. In contrast, tape still has playback utility at least for audio books, where picking up where you left off is essential, and means of doing this with read-only CDs is problematic/hackish, an
    • Maybe we could have smart CD's where a small magnetic strip is stored on the transparent plastic bit at the centre of the disc. Then you could save some basic information such as the last track position on the disc.
  • Realizing my college band jam tapes were now 20 years old, I started sampling them and encoding with FLAC. My biggest problem was the degradation of the tape players, not the tapes themselves. One tape did jam, and I opened it up and fixed it (try that with a CD). Problem is, I'm not sure what to do with the digital data to preserve it now. Back to tape?
  • Those Phillips engineers are crafty. Cassettes, CDs... did they invent the "phillips screwdriver", too? Anything else that Sony gets credit for instead?
  • Is that we have a

    Director of Research

    at the

    International Federation of Phonographic Industries

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