Carfest South: The Beginning of the End?

[darkanddivine]

Weirdly enough a few artists have released stuff on cassette and a small (very small) number of cassette only record labels have sprung up. It's not been given the publicity that vinyl has, which perhaps goes back to your earlier point about the coverage. If enough places started saying "mate, there's a cassette revival on" then people would start to believe it. I think give the digital-ness of most music collections today, a cassette tape is the equivalent of an Easter egg hunt. You've got to jump through so many hoops to actually listen to it, that it's probably a thrill if all you've ever known is Spotify.

[IntlDebris]

Originally Posted by darkanddivine

a small (very small) number of cassette only record labels have sprung up.

Nah, there are hundreds and hundreds of them. There are almost 20,000 cassette releases from last year alone listed on Discogs (and the site is far from complete). As I said in my last post, it's just an expansion of the DIY tape labels that were always around.

What's interesting is, much like the "CDs are dead" thing, there have been a fair few articles about a cassette revival (here are just a few ...) yet it doesn't actually reflect reality. While an album like 2814's Rain Temple, from one of the most acclaimed cassette-based labels, sold 850 tapes on its day of release last year, which would have been enough to push it into the top 150 without the 1000+ LPs and CDs, had the label chosen to register with SoundScan, I've not come across any other small labels selling so many, and tapes still seem to be an outlier with bigger releases still. There are a bunch of releases which have had a cassette version in the last couple of years - Slowdive, Aphex Twin, Kanye West - but even Cassette Store Day (next week, people!) doesn't seem to have shaken off the novelty image the so-called revival seems to be having. So it's either off-the-radar micro-labels, or the occasional niche edition for a bigger release. They're still only selling in the tens and hundreds rather than the thousands and millions they'd need to to actually live up to any of the hype in those articles linked above.

[darkanddivine]

Originally Posted by IntlDebris

Nah, there are hundreds and hundreds of them.

Blimey mate I stand corrected!

I think the same thing applies in a way to my earlier point about confirmation bias - or, "what you see is what there is." I did see a breakdown somewhere of the vinyl revival to reality. In isolation it looks impressive, but in the round it's basically peak niche for want of a better description. Of course, that does make for a good news story. But there's no denying that if you're in the midst of a revival or a new technology, the temptation to massively overstate the significance of that revival is hard to avoid (especially where vested interests are involved!)

[Automatik]

Apropos of nothing, I recall that when my local record shop (which is actually a high street multimedia retailer à la HMV rather than an independent record shop) stopped selling CD singles circa 2010, it was to use the space for a vinyl section.

As far as I know, it still doesn't sell cassettes.

[IntlDebris]

Originally Posted by darkanddivine

But there's no denying that if you're in the midst of a revival or a new technology, the temptation to massively overstate the significance of that revival is hard to avoid (especially where vested interests are involved!)

Oh, definitely. Streaming is the only thing that actually seems to be doing what people say it's doing (increasing very quickly).

Originally Posted by Automatik

Apropos of nothing, I recall that when my local record shop (which is actually a high street multimedia retailer à la HMV rather than an independent record shop) stopped selling CD singles circa 2010, it was to use the space for a vinyl section.

As far as I know, it still doesn't sell cassettes.

I'm amazed it kept CD singles that long, even by around 2006 I remember my local HMV had brought their CD single section down to a single aisle-end. There can't have been that many even released by 2010. It's incredible how quickly it died off as a format.

And yeah, I think Rough Trade is the only shop I've been in that sells cassettes in any amount. HMV have the occasional one in if it's a big release. There are only 16 shops across the UK taking part in Cassette Store Day.

[Automatik]

Originally Posted by IntlDebris

I'm amazed it kept CD singles that long, even by around 2006 I remember my local HMV had brought their CD single section down to a single aisle-end. There can't have been that many even released by 2010. It's incredible how quickly it died off as a format.

Upon reflection, it was before 2010, so you're right. I had to order the PFAYM CD singles online as a pack, so must have been shortly after 2007.

Indian Summer was the last CD single I walked into a shop and bought.

[Son of Stopped]

And yet Together Forever or whatever it was called was available as a CD in HMV.
But I remember being able to buy PFAYM singles.