Bandcamp Friday

It's another Bandcamp Friday. There are several artists with stuff out I'd like to buy, but they're only offered as digital or frigging cassette. Seriously, wtf is the deal with millenials loving cassettes? I generally like the millenials, but I really don't understand this. Except for handiness in making mixtapes, cassettes were one of the worst formats ever. Better than 8 tracks, I suppose, but compared to CDs? Fuck cassettes. I hate that they are rapidly becoming the only physical way to buy anything from Bandcamp, aside from the occasional ridiculously overpriced and immediately sold out vinyl.

I'll be happy when CDs have been uncool long enough that they become cool again. I reckon that'll be another ten years or so, when whatever generation today's 12 year olds belong to becomes the tastemaking hipsters.

I like cassettes for recording and sending mixtapes ... and you might just be surprised how many of my old friends still use them. A couple of my friends have taken to restoring old tape decks as a hobby. (The challenge is finding quality blank tapes for sale.) But yeah, I'm not fond of them as a medium for commercially pre-recorded music.

I don't get the love for cassettes, either. Regardless of sound quality, I haven't had a working cassette deck in probably two decades.

A buddy of mine who toured with his band from time to time told me they made some cassettes for one tour, and they sold out before the tour was over. But from what he could tell chatting with fans, they were keepsakes more than vehicles for actual listening experiences.

I see cassettes on BC from time to time, but not as often you apparently do. Lots of vinyl (some of it, as you point out, ridiculously expensive, especially if it's colored vinyl), but still plenty of CDs. Though a lot of artists are going DL-only.

It's not just cassettes that people buy only for keepsakes. I'm convinced that 98% of new vinyl that's been bought during the vinyl revival has never seen a needle. All the people yapping that they love vinyl because it sounds so much better do all their listening to mp3s, usually through crappy ear buds. But their collection sure looks impressive!!!

Which is fair enough, I guess. But as one of the poor stupid saps who wants to buy physical product to actually listen to, I feel that the hobby that has contributed as much as anything to my inability to be able to retire in my lifetime is now telling me to fuck off, it doesn't want my money anymore.

I might just be unlucky with who I was wanting to buy stuff from today. Marissa Nadler has a new covers album out that I would like to get, and Christian Savill from Slowdive has a new band called Beachy Head with a new album out. The only options for either of those is digital and cassette. (Beachy Head had vinyl, but is sold out.)

breno Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's not just cassettes that people buy only for
> keepsakes. I'm convinced that 98% of new vinyl
> that's been bought during the vinyl revival has
> never seen a needle.

I will confess to this...for one purchase. I bought the vinyl reissue of the Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence soundtrack from a few years ago because I thought the artwork was so cool. It's framed and hanging on the wall in my office. Check it out.

I remember reading ads in Trouser Press for “cassette only” releases on ROIR Records. Kinda struck me as a dumb idea then, too.

Initially I only used my cassette deck to make mix tapes, which were probably the most exciting form of listening in my lifetime. When I could start driving, I did buy pre-recorded cassettes to play in the car’s tape deck. But they were a lousy product... they just don’t last.

I think those bandcamp artists are only selling cassettes because they’re now seen as retro, cool and kitschy. No other reason to push the format that I can tell. Hey, give the people what they want!

> I think those bandcamp artists are only selling cassettes because they’re now seen
> as retro, cool and kitschy. No other reason to push the format that I can tell.

Maybe they're cheap to produce, compared to other physical formats? Can anyone provide any insight, as to the economics?

Yeah, I enjoyed recording cassettes for car listening. I'd never go anywhere without that case. And today, I record quite a few mix tapes to share & swap with friends. Maybe they're "retro, cool and kitschy," but so am I.

I've especially enjoyed the swaps with one of my closest friends, back in CO -- a guy I've referred to, in TP posts, as "my drummer friend." I've managed to stretch his tastes, introducing him to some cool bands/albums that probably would've gone under his radar -- Afghan Whigs and Ride, to name just two. A lot of my mix tapes have served as "laboratory tests" for my show (and vice versa).

I expect CDs to become the new "vinyls" in a decade, but manufacturing them will probably stop first and then get revived. (It's practically impossible to buy a CD player made competently enough that it doesn't skip like crazy now.) But I like the fact that so many people have dumped their CD collections at thrift stores for sale at $1-2.

Tapes are popular with -wave music etc. And yes it’s a retro kitsch medium. I collect them a little. I hate “collecting” things in general. It’s really supporting small artists and collecting pop art.