Have new cassettes disappeared?

[Dawn]

A similar question was asked recently on another board I post on from time to time, and it occurred to me that I haven't seen any cassette versions of new releases in probably two years or more. Wal-Mart used to have a small selection of older catalog titles for around $5, but lately I haven't even seen those.

Are cassettes being sold at all in any of the stores near you? Even the selection of blank cassettes is down to virtually nothing at most of the stores I've checked lately, just one or two brands if any.

[SAT-I need more room!!]

I don't think so, unless smaller stores carry them. Even that small store I always talk about won't even buy them, even if you have them sealed brand new!

It doesn't affect me, I hate them for the most part.

[H2IZCOOL]

I think the age of tape in general is dying. It's even getting more difficult to find VCR tapes.

[Jughead]

Unless you count used record stores, cassettes are a dying breed around these parts.

I think they've joined the 8-track-tape in the music graveyard.

[kathyb]

I haven't seen cassettes being sold in stores in quite awhile. I guess they've gone by the wayside.
Speaking of cassettes--here's a cute story. As you probably know, I shop at the Goodwill a lot. They have quite a few used cassettes for sale, and when I was in there one day, two older gentlemen--probably in their 60's--were looking through the cassettes and making comments on the artists. I wasn't paying much attention to them until I heard one of the men say "Here's Madonna. She's good", and the other one said "Oh, she's all right. Sometimes she has good songs and sometimes she doesn't." At which point the first man said "Yeah, but who's talking about her songs?" LMAO! I don't know if they ended up buying the cassette or not.

[Dawn]

sat said:

I don't think so, unless smaller stores carry them. Even that small store I always talk about won't even buy them, even if you have them sealed brand new!

It doesn't affect me, I hate them for the most part.

I must say, I'm not that fond of them either anymore, mainly because of the durability. I threw quite a few of them away a few months ago - some had been eaten and sounded horrible, and have others in a box in the garage waiting to go to the Goodwill.

[Dawn]

h2izcool said:

I think the age of tape in general is dying. It's even getting more difficult to find VCR tapes.

I agree about the VCR tapes, Ed. I haven't bought any in a while, but the last time I looked, they only had one shelf of tapes, whereas only two years ago, there were probably at least three or four times as much. It's getting hard to find VCRs as well, especially stand alone players. Most all of them now are coupled with a DVD player.

[Dawn]

jughead said:

Unless you count used record stores, cassettes are a dying breed around these parts.

I think they've joined the 8-track-tape in the music graveyard.

I think you're right. I remember 8-tracks just kind of slipped away in the early to mid '80s, very similar to what's happening with cassettes. I'm wondering how long it will be before cassette players in stereos will begin to be phased out.

[Dawn]

kathyb said:

I haven't seen cassettes being sold in stores in quite awhile. I guess they've gone by the wayside.
Speaking of cassettes--here's a cute story. As you probably know, I shop at the Goodwill a lot. They have quite a few used cassettes for sale, and when I was in there one day, two older gentlemen--probably in their 60's--were looking through the cassettes and making comments on the artists. I wasn't paying much attention to them until I heard one of the men say "Here's Madonna. She's good", and the other one said "Oh, she's all right. Sometimes she has good songs and sometimes she doesn't." At which point the first man said "Yeah, but who's talking about her songs?" LMAO! I don't know if they ended up buying the cassette or not.

LOL! ;D

I haven't had a chance yet to go to the Goodwills out here, but where I lived in Virginia, the selection was kind of hit and miss. Sometimes they would have homemade cassettes there - no song descriptions or anything, just a label - and I was tempted to pick up a couple of those and see what was on them. I remember there used to be a website with snippets of songs and things found on tapes like that, and some of them were pretty hilarious! ;D I'll have to see if I can find the link to it again.

[shaunsmorninggirl]

Come to think of it, I haven't seen a cassette in years. At least four! I loved them back in the day, but now, I can't stand them. I still have a small collection, and I am this close to just tossing them. I loved them back in the day because they were portable and you could make your own mixes. With MP3, you get that same portability, tenfold, without hundreds of tapes cluttering up your entertainment center. So, while they certainly served a great purpose, I'm glad they're gone. Just my .02.

[Dawn]

shaunsmorninggirl said:

Come to think of it, I haven't seen a cassette in years. At least four! I loved them back in the day, but now, I can't stand them. I still have a small collection, and I am this close to just tossing them. I loved them back in the day because they were portable and you could make your own mixes. With MP3, you get that same portability, tenfold, without hundreds of tapes cluttering up your entertainment center. So, while they certainly served a great purpose, I'm glad they're gone. Just my .02.

That's my feeling on them too. I used to make a lot of mix cassettes, and still have quite a few of them, but it's much quicker and easier to burn a CD or mp3s, and usually sounds better as well. I still have about 8 or 9 16-packs of 90 minute TDK cassettes that I bought in 2001 that are still unopened. Right now they're on a shelf in my bedroom closet - I doubt I'll ever use them.

[Ken]

The last time I reember seeing a new pre - recorded cassette in stores was (I think) around 2000.I see used cassettes all over - swap meets, used record / CD stores etc.I still have all of mine, I've had to throw away the odd one because the tape has packed it in. The large majority of them still sound great!

I loved making my own mix tapes - and I was still making them to play in my vehicle up until about 6 months ago when I finally decided to have a CD / MP3 player installed.

I agree with you Dawn about blank cassettes, here as well the selection is down to virtually nil. I used to see boxes of blanks all over, now if you see them they come bundled in packages of two or three.


Blank VHS tapes locally are still amazingly easy to find and very cheap.

[Ken]

kathyb said:

I haven't seen cassettes being sold in stores in quite awhile. I guess they've gone by the wayside.
Speaking of cassettes--here's a cute story. As you probably know, I shop at the Goodwill a lot. They have quite a few used cassettes for sale, and when I was in there one day, two older gentlemen--probably in their 60's--were looking through the cassettes and making comments on the artists. I wasn't paying much attention to them until I heard one of the men say "Here's Madonna. She's good", and the other one said "Oh, she's all right. Sometimes she has good songs and sometimes she doesn't." At which point the first man said "Yeah, but who's talking about her songs?" LMAO! I don't know if they ended up buying the cassette or not.

LOL!!

[Dawn]

kenfrank said:

The last time I reember seeing a new pre - recoded cassette in stores was (I think) around 2000.I see used cassettes all over - swap meets, used record / CD stores etc.

I agree with you Dawn about blank cassettes, here as well the selection is down to virtually nil. I used to see boxes of blanks all over, now if you see them they come bundled in packages of two or three.


Blank VHS tapes locally are still amazingly easy to find and very cheap.

I've noticed that too about the smaller packages, Ken. It's probably been two years or more since I've seen a bundle of blank cassettes larger than four or five, and as you mentioned, they seem to be down to just a couple now. That's interesting about the blank video tapes being easier to find in your area.

[Dawn]

kenfrank said:

The last time I reember seeing a new pre - recoded cassette in stores was (I think) around 2000.I see used cassettes all over - swap meets, used record / CD stores etc.I still have all of mine, I've had to throw away the odd one because the tape has packed it in. The large majority of them still sound great!

I loved making my own mix tapes - and I was still making them to play in my vehicle up until about 6 months ago when I finally decided to have a CD / MP3 player installed.

I agree with you Dawn about blank cassettes, here as well the selection is down to virtually nil. I used to see boxes of blanks all over, now if you see them they come bundled in packages of two or three.


Blank VHS tapes locally are still amazingly easy to find and very cheap.

One of our cars still has just a cassette player, and we've been thinking of getting a CD/mp3 player installed in it. Which brand did you go with?