When it comes to physical media for small bands, cassettes are a great medium. They about 50 cents for dubbing, and easy to get profits on.
For someone that goes to shows, $5 cassettes are also a lot less risky of a purchase from an unknown band compared to a $20 record. That being said, the extremely low cost also allows a lot of garbage to flourish. After collecting over 200 new tapes, I have gone through many others that are absolute garbage, but it still is way less risky compared to vinyl. Most bands also include digital downloads, have good artwork / printing techniques on the tapes, and they act more as a collectible item. CDs are about the same in cost, but aren't as gimmicky as tapes and harder to distribute / print.
I'm happy tapes are around, sure their resale is absolute shit, but it isn't risky if it is just $3-$5 a pop.
That being said, labels and bands that charge more than $7 a tape are jackasses. I've seen some albums go for $15 on tape, which is ridiculous because it costs about 75 cents to purchase, dub, and print a single tape.
tl;dr tapes are nice, but there is a lot of garbage because they are cheap, but also less risk
Well said. There's something really enjoyable about tape collecting, I feel like I genuinely enjoy listening to a cassette over a mp3 file, even if the sound quality isn't as good. For lo-fi genres like black metal, I actually really prefer listening on tape.
Benjamin Reed
nibba you can't even get a cassette player in the thrift store anymore
Christopher Miller
I make cassettes because they are a cute medium to release music on. It fits right in your hand unlike a CD or vinyl stuff.
Levi Sullivan
I got like 50+ copies of a tape my friend and I made 4 or 5 years ago. We broke up a little while after we got the tapes. What's the best way to get rid of them?
Carson Morgan
I like that they have a higher storage capacity than CD. I can fit my bootleg albums on just one side of a 120 minute cassette.
Justin Robinson
Hahaha clearly no one in this thread was around to remember having to use the eraser end of a pencil to rewind the tape after it inevitably got jacked up
Gavin Cruz
Hahaha yeah I'd rather just casually stream music and download mp3 files with jacked up names and out of order tracklists
Levi Reyes
If you have a good tape deck, this will never happen
Jackson Bennett
>bands that charge more than $7 a tape are jackasses G-good thing I don't do this