My Cassette Obsession


~2 mins 08 Nov 2024

My cassette collection

I've talked about this a fair bit on the blog, but I love listening to cassette tapes. People (mostly my peers) sometimes ask me why I listen to cassettes when there is YouTube and Spotify, but they just give off a different vibe, as if I can "feel the music".

How it all started

One day I was searching the internet for more info on my then-favorite band, Daleka Obala, and somehow stumbled upon a cassette tape of theirs. Since I didn't even know what a tape was, I was pretty skeptical, but I went ahead and bought it and after some research into the Walkmans, also ordered one.

When all that arrived, I was fascinated by how most tapes give quality sound. There is always the recognizable hiss, but I have got used to it and to be honest kind of like it now because it just feels nostalgic for the times that never were.

Where do I get them?

I mostly get my tapes from Njuškalo (my local eBay equivalent) or from Discogs (which is a worldwide marketplace for CDs/tapes/vinyl/etc.). Most of the sellers are in my city, so I usually just pick them up for a few bucks. There are also antique markets at Britanski trg (a local square) every Sunday so there's that option too.

Catch from last Sunday's antique market on Britanac

Why not listen to records?

Since they are more "in fashion" today, people also tend to ask me why I don't just use a record player and buy LPs. They certainly do have better sound quality than tapes, but first of all, they are greatly more expensive than tapes, and second of all, they aren't portable at all.

Another thing about them is that they are more mainstream. I like the "undergroundness" of tapes. You can find fewer of them nowadays while records are still being produced. That means collecting tapes is much harder than collecting records, plus collecting records is way more expensive in the long run.

Again, why not just use YouTube or Spotify?

Except for the reasons I mentioned at the beginning of the post, another plus with cassettes is that you own the music you bought, not like the subscription models of Spotify or ad-supported YouTube. They can shut off any day, but my tapes stay with me wherever I am. I don't need to download anything, I don't need the internet, I don't need anything—just a pair of AAA batteries, a Walkman, and a tape.

And that's the magic of cassette tapes.

This was Day 25 of #100DaysToOffload!

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