Mary Spender, a UK artist and YouTuber, recently released a video pondering whether it makes sense for an indie artist to sell cassettes. You see, cassette sales are up from almost nothing to still almost nothing. And the profit of selling 30 cassettes is the same as the profit of having 88 thousand streams on Spotify, or some such number. The problem is that the vast majority of people do not own a working cassette player, so the audience is super crazy teeny tiny small.
But it’s a great idea and I think indie artists should do it. They should make small amounts, but they should do it. Because for those rare people who are listening to tapes, it’s a treat to find new artists releasing music in this format.
Here’s why I’m pretty sure that cassettes won’t see the rise in sales that vinyl made. Note that I didn’t say “comeback.” Vinyl sales are much higher than anyone expected, but we will never get to the point where every household listens to records again. But direct drive record players that worked 30 years ago will likely still work now, and replacing a belt on an old turntable is pretty easy.
Cassette decks, on the other hand, have internal rubber belts in very hard to reach places. Replacing them often means taking the thing apart. And most cassette desks ended up in attics or garages, and if you put thin rubber in a hot space for 40 years, it basically melts. You have to take it apart, clean it up (because the belt melted everywhere and it’s hard to clean, order the correct belts, put them on, and reassemble the thing. Not gonna happen in 9.9 cases out of 10. And new cassette players are hard to find and they’re usually junk.
CD players mostly still work. CDs sound superior to cassettes and they’re not as damaged by heat. They also don’t stretch or get tangled up in the machine. I really wish CDs would make a comeback.
