Great Debate #3: Are Cassettes Here To Stay?

Cassettes: passing fad or the new vinyl? In the next installment of our summer debate series, MATT SHEA questions whether a medium that effectively died out in the early 1990s is really back for good? Weigh in on the debate in the comments section below for your chance to win a $250 record store voucher of your choosing thanks to Hyundai’s Veloster.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] If you look around tapes seem to be everywhere now, popping up in independent record stores across the country and increasing their presence through mail ordering and fanzines. In the digital realm, online stores are being established to cater specifically for the medium, while overseas acts have jumped on the cassette bandwagon – from Deerhunter and Dirty Projectors selling limited-edition keepsakes at gigs to Dinosaur Jr reissuing their first three albums in the format that arguably suits them best.

But is the flurry of interest in all things magnetic really justified, or simply a fad riding on the coattails of vinyl? After all, the hiss of the cassette has never been regarded as stacking up against the warmth of classic wax or the crisp, crystal clear reproduction of compact discs. Are cassettes really an important medium?

Chapter Music’s Guy Blackman thinks so. The label – which built a strong early- to mid-’90s reputation on the back of cassettes – recently dished up their first tape in 15 years: a reissue of Hit The Jackpot’s Holiday EP, which promptly sold out its 150 copies.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] “There’s definitely a practical element now,” Blackman says of the cassette’s resurgence, “because people are looking for an alternative to formats that seem to have lost most of their aesthetic appeal. I don’t think people get much joy out of going to a gig and buying a CD. The only physical formats people care about anymore are ones such as vinyl or cassettes that people have some sort of connection to. Because they seem more personal, probably, or more limited, perhaps.”

The practicality for Blackman fits in on the supply side too. “Basically a tape will be $4 each in terms of cost, no matter how many you make,” he explains. “If you want to do 100 7” [vinyl] pressings, it will cost you probably $10 each. If you want to do 100 12”s, it will be $15 each. Tapes make it affordable and you can sell them cheaply.”

Dan Lewis of Melbourne’s Special Award agrees, but sees cassettes as a medium tailored for small labels and independent artists. Last year Special Award put out The Enclosures’ debut mini-album on tape, and they plan a cadre of similar releases for 2012.

“I’m dealing with artists who work in a really prolific way, and I want to have situations where I can keep up with them,” Lewis says. “It’s a tremendously easy format for that … Essentially, I wanted to have a way [to distribute music] that was affordable for labels. And even beyond me, independent artists find it much simpler to do things on that scale with shorter runs.”

Not everyone is convinced, however. Melbourne’s Mistletone Records – an indie touring company and label representing acts such as Beaches and Jonti – released Kes Band’s self-titled album on tape three years ago, but co-owner Sophie Best is ambivalent at best when it comes to the medium. “Cassettes look cute on the merch desk and they are cheap to manufacture, which is always a good thing, but I can't honestly say the demand is there for cassettes. Our cassette sales have been, shall we say, modest and I think they're more a novelty than a meaningful trend.”

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Nic Warnock of R.I.P. Society Records (Royal Headache, Woollen Kits) has also experienced the downside of business in the cassette lane, although for him it was more to do with the production side of things than actual sale figures. “They were the biggest failures out of anything I’ve ever done,” Warnock laughs when recounting the recording of shambolic Sydney punksters Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys KISS IT! cassette. “I play in that band as well, and we were trying to avoid digitalisation, so we were dubbing off my four-track into the back of my stereo to make copies in real time. I had to turn my stereo and four-track up really loud to get decent quality. It was very, very time-consuming and didn’t really work.

“The other one was Lloyd Honeybrook’s [Saxual Abstinence] tape, and that was a tonal noise thing,” he continues. “I think the most I sold was in a couple of orders to Japan. I’d gotten hold of a cassette-dubbing machine but it wasn’t loud enough … So basically the experiment releasing cassettes has been quite disastrous for me.”

Still, much like Dan Lewis, Warnock believes cassettes have their place. “I think of it as an important format for particular types of music,” he says. “I don’t think it should be a format that an indie rock band should be pursuing to release their full length album. But as a demo format – as an introductory thing – the cassette is an important medium.”

But what about the retail side of the equation? Do cassette tapes have a place in the modern day record store? Nick Senger, the co-owner of Newcastle’s Vox Cyclops and an obsessive collector of tapes, thinks so. “We’ve had them since we started,” he says. “I’ve personally got over 1000 of the damn things. But I’d say that they’re the most popular format we carry after vinyl, and definitely more popular than CDs. And they’re cheap; you can take a punt. You can buy a whole album for $5 and it actually sounds pretty good.

“I think they are an important format,” he continues. “Firstly, it’s cheap analog and sounds good, and secondly, if you can’t afford to press a record, do a tape. You’re basically talking to the same people anyway and it’s the same idea: it’s two-sided. That’s really important and a lot of people don’t think about that. I think there’s a difference between an album that’s made with two sides and an album that isn’t. Tapes are really good for that.”

Polyester Records in Melbourne have also returned to cassettes, dedicating a small section of both their city and Fitzroy stores to tapes produced by independent artists. Co-owner Nate Nott admits that customers aren’t exactly breaking the doors down to get to the product, but says the numbers are increasing. “It’s something you like to have in the shop,” he says. “I’ve always liked the aesthetic of tapes. I’m part of the cassette generation, really. And they’re pretty cheap still. They’re all $10-15, if that … and probably about 50 to 60 percent of releases are coming with download codes – about the same as vinyl.”

Nott’s candid about his nostalgia for the format, but also thinks tapes fit some bands perfectly. “It’s a great format to put your albums out on. Cassettes still sound great in the car to me. They sound amazing for dirty garage rock bands to put their albums out on cassette.”

"Our cassette sales have been, shall we say, modest and I think they're more a novelty than a meaningful trend.”

Victoria-based Jack Petty recently started an online mail order music store, Popular Favourites, offering a number of cassette releases. He says the medium is a perfect for not only the mail order businesses, but acts centred in the DIY/independent scene. “Cassettes do fit in well with the mail order business. There’s the size, but also the type of music – especially in garage at the moment – there are so many bands who are just starting, only have five or six songs, but people still want to hear them. That’s where tapes really work.”

But where to from here for cassettes? Will they forever fill a small niche in the industry, or is the whole movement destined to disappear in five years, a victim of declining vinyl prices, increasing equipment costs and further digitalisation?

“I think it will last,” says Lewis. “As long as people have the machines; even if it’s a tiny scene. To look at it, they’ve lasted from 1979 or so until now. They’ll never be back as a commercial force. And you never really know what’s around the corner. Ten years ago they were saying that vinyl would never return.”

Warnock’s a touch more cynical, “I think for most people it is a fad,” he says. “I think it’s maybe more of a marketing ploy now than it used to be … I think [they] will last, but I think it will drop out of focus if it doesn’t continue to be a marketing ploy. But then those people that would have done it anyway will continue to do it.”