I was driving down the motorway the other day whilst listening to my iPod. I have one of those FM transmitter cradle things which lets me play the songs on my iPod through my car stereo without having to dismantle and re wire anything. It suddenly dawned on me that this is the first car I’ve had that hasn’t got (or had) a factory fitted Cassette player. All my other cars had Cassette players, which I later replaced with my own CD player except my first car which only ever had a Cassette player. This then got me thinking about Cassettes in general…

We’re all well aware that the music industry is moving in the direction of MP3 downloads, and possibly in the way of the new Deluxe MP3s if these catch on. Most of us have probably converted our CDs into MP3s by now, so that we can listen to them on our MP3 players. All of my CDs are now stored in a box in the loft and I have no physical copies of my albums lying around the house. Not only has this saved me storing hundreds upon hundreds of CDs in racks and boxes under my bed, but it has organised and consolidated my music collection into one easily manageable library the size of a small hard back book.

Compact Cassette 1962 - ????

But what ever happened to Cassette Tapes?

Remember these? Remember those pain in the arse plastic blocks that you had to rewind or fast forward if you wanted to skip a track? There wasn’t a button you could just press to go forward or back a track. If you wanted to change album, you had to change tapes!

Their was a certain charm about cassettes though. Hands up if you’ve ever made someone you love a mix tape? Yep, me too. There was no better way of saying “This is how I feel…” than with a mix tape. Sure you can now put them on compilation CD, compile an online playlist, or even give them a USB mix tape, but it’s not the same. Their was something very satisfying about pressing the record button at the just the right moment, and that satisfying feeling you got knowing “I made this!”. You also knew that when you received a mix tape, someone had taken the time and effort to sit and record every single track, rather than just sticking all the files in a folder and clicking “Burn to Disc”. How heartless and cold is that?!

Remember how the tape used to sometimes get stuck in the tape head, and all the tape came whizzing out when you pulled out the Cassette? You then had to wind the tape back in and hope that it hadn’t done too much damage.

I’m not saying we should bring back Cassette tapes as we have moved on considerably since the Walkman ruled the world. Technology had improved, and there are much better and more reliable alternatives. All I want is for people to look back on the Cassette tape and think of them in a positive light. Yes, they had their flaws, but hasn’t everyone?

Why tapes aren’t ready to die

Not ready to die

Tapes won’t die any time soon simply because there is still a demand for them. Albeit a small demand, it’s a demand nonetheless. People still use them for data storage, and, yes, people still use them to listen to music. There is a large number of cars in this country that still have tape players, and people still put their music on tape, just so they can listen to it in their car.

The police still use tapes in interviews. It’s a cheap, quick and easy way to record interrogations. To record interviews on anything other than a tape would possibly require a computer which would need setting up. Police do not have the time to be faffing about with computers when they can just bang a tape into a tape recorder and hit record. Done.

Accountants, Lawyers, Doctors, and secretaries all still use a Dictaphone from time to time.

According to this article, Cassette tape sales were on the rise in 2009.

What can I do with all my old tapes?

Many of us have still got dozens of tapes just lying around not doing anything. You could throw them away, but then you’d just know the tapes you throw away will have something important on them. There’s a number of things you can do with old tapes:

1. Make clothing accessories
2. Reuse or Recycle them
3. Turn them into furniture
4. Convert them to MP3. You can buy a USB to tape desk converter which cost in the region of £80, or you can do this for FREE by using one of these cables, with one end plugged into an old Walkman and the other in the Microphone socket on your PC. Then use Audacity to record it and export it to MP3. Simples.
5. Take them to bed or lose them forever.

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