Mixtapes are back. Why is forgotten becoming popular again?

Recently, a lot of indie bands are returning to the idea of ​​releases on mixtapes. Why not? As soon as the music is recorded, in addition to resources on the Internet, we need to immediately think about the physical media. While standard discs and vinyl are currently leading positions, good old cassettes are returning to the “world stage”. A lot of companies that print CDs and vinyls can still help with cassette production.

In 2010, Sony stopped producing cult Walkman cassette players, and the notion of «cassette player» disappeared from the Oxford Dictionary in 2011. But three years later, something strange and stunning happened. American company National Audio Company released and sold more than 10 million audio cassettes. This year was most successful for the company since its inception in 1969.

But not only in United States noted such an unexpected increase in sales. In 2007, only 205,000 mixtapes were sold in the UK, but in 2015, 2.1 million units were already sold more than in the last 20 years.

But why forgotten carries come back again?

The first is SIZE

This is perhaps one of the most important points if we are talking about transporting cassettes. At the moment vinyl is bought mostly as a souvenir. After the concert they liked, people want to take something with them as a souvenir. And in this case, if you go on tour, it will be much easier to take along a box of cassettes than a few boxes of vinyl and discs.

These audio media are good for collecting, they take up little space.

SOUND

Mix tapes, like vinyl, are analog formats. They have the same notorious "warm" sound, and deteriorate very, very slowly. Many of my friends still keep tapes from the 80s and 90s. With proper storage, serve more than a few dozen years. And on high-quality cassette players may sound just phenomenal, no disks can compare with this. Those players can still be found in online stores, bought at auctions or in flea markets.

But if the audio cassette costs you about 2-5 $, then get ready to pay a tidy sum for a good music player. The cost of its is extremely considerable and is growing every year.

COST

First of all, it concerns young music groups who want to release an album, but do not have adequate funds to release C-D.

If you order, for example, a circulation of 50-100 pieces, then you will have to pay only 1-3 $ per piece depending on length of the recording and design complexity. To print discs turned out to be cheaper, you have to order a circulation of thousands of discs.

A similar experience was at studio Burger Records. They were able to gather about one thousand musicians from obscure groups on one festival stage and sold audio tapes from concerts for $ 2 to visitors. Such a move allowed spreading new music, unfamiliar groups could record a few songs, and fans could learn about their work.

Sharp popularity of forgotten audio carriers is clearly provoked by the growth of fashion for the retro revolution. But still there is an interesting trend, even among young people. Despite the availability of digital audio, most people still return to vinyls and cassettes. You can call it a retro coup or usual fashionable wave, which will be forgotten in a few years. But still analog media do not want to give up, even in the age of progress.

Thanks for attention guys. I hope it was interesting.

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