AdministratorWhy cassettes are making a comeback?
Believe it or not, the seemingly archaic tape seems to be making a comeback 20 years after it lost traction due to the CD. Generation Z has been introduced to the technology and everyone who is older is in shock by their interest. Cassettes started to see a small increase in sales starting in 2011.
Are cassettes still being made?
Most of the major US music companies had discontinued production of pre-recorded cassettes by 2003. For audiobooks, the final year that cassettes represented greater than 50% of total market sales was 2002 when they were replaced by CDs as the dominant media.
Who still makes cassette tape?
National Audio Company
Cassette Tape Is Now Being Made in Springfield National Audio Company will soon begin manufacturing its own cassette tape to be used in audiocassettes. The company’s supply of tape was finally drying up, more than five decades after the cassette tape was first invented…
Do cassette players sound good?
Unlike vinyl records, cassette tapes absolutely do not sound better than digital. They sound tiny and have a low hiss in the background and will start to worble if you listen to the same tape over and over too many times.
Are cassette tapes better than CD?
Due to the magnetic tape limitations of cassettes, noise intrusion can be more noticeable in a cassette and ultimately affect the sound quality. Even a cassette with noise reduction will have a smaller signal-to-noise ratio than a CD. So based on the facts, CDs are superior to cassettes.
Can I still buy cassette tapes?
People still buy cassette tapes. Not many, granted, but a niche industry has formed around the decades-old music format. The sole refining factory that makes tape material is apparently facing renovations. That means a shortage has hit manufacturers.
Are cassettes really making a comeback?
The sales of tapes have seen big increases in recent years with another increase of 125% in 2018, but is this really a return of the cassette? In the words of LL Cool J, don’t call it a comeback. Yet quite a bit has been made of the increase in tape sales in 2018. The jump in sales is quite big, standing at 125%.
Why are cassettes making a comeback?
There are also economic reasons why we might be seeing a cassette comeback. We all know how little streaming platforms actually pay artists per listen, which especially hurts small and upcoming artists. This has been exacerbated by the pandemic which has shut down live venues, a lifeline for small artists for money and exposure.
Do cassettes really sound better than CDs?
No. CDs sound better than cassettes. MP3s are sonically on par with cassettes, but cassettes will be noisier. Vinyl sounds best, but surface noise is a drag. Regardless, the best high fidelity medium is still the LP record, and the best sounding systems are turntable-based. True high end turntables can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Are cassettes still good?
The older, the better, the stronger. In the case of cassette tapes, the idea of old is gold does not work fully. The cassette from the 80s and 90s had their own charisma. But they also used to fade away quickly, not all the tapes but few ones. Despite this, there are thousands of people who collect cassettes for many reasons.