Why Are Cassettes So Unpopular Among The General Public?

[Dead Star]

Short answer:
Because they suck.

Long answer for the young people who weren't alive back when people like me were buying them:
Cassettes were smaller and compact with less audio quality compared to vinyl and CDs. You only bought them when you couldn't afford the other 2 formats. There was a time when brand new CDs were selling for $24.99, making them a pain to buy. I was there, and I've long believed it was the reason Napster took off at the end of the 90s since it wasn't easy buying new music back then.

The CD was automatically better that you didn't have to rewind and fast forward it to find that one song you like. Add in that it also didn't have the hissing sound and generally bad quality of cassettes, and you have a winner.

Many people still bought vinyls cause they sound fantastic in stereos, and it's nice to have the full LP with the artwork and a sleeve with all the lyrics. With a vinyl, everything is bigger and easy to read opposed to the cassette's liner notes being so small.

Let's also throw in the fact that cassettes wear out over time with more use. Vinyls can have this problem too and it was one of the weaknesses they had. But the quality of a cassette will go down the more you play it opposed to a CD that you can play forever if it is properly cared for.

In today's era, digital format has been superior going on more than 20 years now that it makes cassettes even more obsolete.

 

[Dead Star]

Not the biggest an of cassettes but I like vinyls.

Physical media is important to fight sensor ship and keep history safe. Digital formats are far easier to modify and update, truth and context easier to erase.

Good to see I'm not the only one here who likes vinyls too. I've collected them my entire life.

I've had much experience with buying the same album on multiple formats and finding it to sound different on Vinyl vs CD, as well as remaster vs original. I have a box of old Megaforce Thrash albums on vinyl that to my ears, have always sounded better than the CD formats.

When CDs first came out, some of them sounded too compressed and had higher mids where vinyl copies just sounded better with a more dynamic range. I still find this to be the case with many old albums. Anthrax's first three albums sound better on vinyl than CD to me.

 

[wavve-creator]

I lost ALL my tool vinyls I went to look thru the ones I had left and I only have one I could find

 

[Ross_Я]

You only bought them when you couldn't afford the other 2 formats.

Or when you wanted something portable?..
I never owned vinyls up until 2010s, when I started really dig into music and found out that many old albums have never been released on anything, but vinyl. So I had to grit my teeth and gather some tech to digitize vinyl.
Otherwise, I always sticked to CDs and cassettes. And digital, of course. Because those're the things that you could take with you.
And at home? There always were PCs. Who would even want vinyls after CDs appeared. Fucking masochists, really.
Man, I can't wait for the day when the vinyl will die out. I fucking hate it. I understand they were necessary at the time, but boy, I hate cleaning them pops and clicks.

inb4: pops and cliks are soul and whatever - fuck you. If you claim that you care about quality and then proceed to listen to the noise, then you are an idiot. Simple as.

 

[Dead Star]

Or when you wanted something portable?..
I never owned vinyls up until 2010s, when I started really dig into music and found out that many old albums have never been released on anything, but vinyl. So I had to grit my teeth and gather some tech to digitize vinyl.
Otherwise, I always sticked to CDs and cassettes. And digital, of course. Because those're the things that you could take with you.
And at home? There always were PCs. Who would even want vinyls after CDs appeared. Fucking masochists, really.
Man, I can't wait for the day when the vinyls will dies out. I fucking hate'em. I understand they were necessary at the time, but boy, I hate cleaning them pops and clicks.

inb4: pops and cliks are soul and whatever - fuck you. If you claim that you care about quality and then proceed to listen to the noise, then you are an idiot. Simple as.

Portable CD players were a big thing in the late 90s and for people who couldn't afford an iPod when those first came out. (Anything Apple made back then was overpriced)

Some albums sound different on vinyl compared to CD, as I described in a previous post. Part of that was due to the early CDs having a more compressed sound with less highs and more mids. If you ever meet an older person who swears by vinyl and mentions CDs sounding muddy from back in the day, this is what they're referring to.

CDs gradually improved a great deal in the 90s and became better (despite the whole "loudness war" talk). There is no audio difference from an album after 1992 mastered in both vinyl and CD. The Marilyn Manson vinyls sell for hundreds of dollars. I owned the Mechanical Animals one and can say from experience, it sounds no different than the CD. I'm fully convinced people selling his vinyls for hundreds of dollars online are just taking advantage of the hipsters who buy everything vinyl.

Vinyl today is more of a novelty thing. I grew up with them when they were still a big deal, so I have a soft spot for them. I don't see them dying out, cause hipsters have deep pockets to reach into and pay absurd amounts of money to collect them.

I never owned vinyls up until 2010s, when I started really dig into music and found out that many old albums have never been released on anything, but vinyl. So I had to grit my teeth and gather some tech to digitize vinyl.

I've went through this too. Many Swedish and Norwegian early Metal bands had releases that never made it over to CD or digital format.

 

[K0WLOON]

outside of the niche, they are a thing with few desirable qualities. They are not the LP gatefold and (arguable) audio quality of the vinyl, they are not so convenient for travel like the digital player or streaming or even the CD which is a thin wafer of plaster and metal foil. They are not so rugged for handling either and the things do not age well as a vinyl (tho the things are aging better than a noticable cadre of CDs from less than mumblemumble years ago. One dug out the CD binder a year or so from this and John lee Hooker was no longer Boogie Chillen, he was a hopity skippity mess of damage and loss RIP).

The devices are not often super easy to service. This one has bought many old turntables that, with the application of mid-level cleaning fluid have been pressed into service for audio replications

One had a semi-stylish tape deck from the thrift store (hitachi de65, ones may have seen it. mid-grade sex appeal IMO) and the innards were a gooey mess of decayed rubber belts and one was not so keen on the cleanup, so the thing went to another to deal with. One has never experienced decayed gum in a turntable (not to say it is impossibility).

One will say, a very nice hifi deck is still a thing of marvels. Brushed aluminum, big blue VFD displays, one could start to drool if one is not dilligent

 

[Ross_Я]

Portable CD players were a big thing in the late 90s and for people who couldn't afford an iPod when those first came out. (Anything Apple made back then was overpriced)

US detected.
My whole country was on cassettes through the 90's. CDs were prevalent, but portable CD-players somehow were a rarity. And iPods? LMAO. Apple didn't have a single product around here until late 2000's.

CDs gradually improved a great deal in the 90s and became better (despite the whole "loudness war" talk). There is no audio difference from an album after 1992 mastered in both vinyl and CD.

That really depends on the producer behind the remaster (whose names are oftne unknown). Even today it is rather easy to stumble upon a remaster that has been overcompressed to hell and back.
Remasters really are hit or miss, and I do have to admit it, even though I prefer CDs over vinyls, like, massively.

 

[Chuffed]

Kashmir's Sufi music lovers are sticking with the audio cassette

Shaksaaz, a tailor in the Kashmiri city of Srinagar, inherited his passion for local Sufi music from his grandfather along with a meticulously preserved collection of cassette tapes from the 1970s, which he often listens to as he works.

apnews.com

There was an article a few days ago - appears there are fans out there. I liked the format but have little interest in 80's or early 90's music myself.

I do like the "fun" part of alternative formats, the hi-fi nerds did more damage than good by insisting everything needs to be tube amps and $9,000 turntables. MP3's, minidiscs, tapes and CD's were great for the average folk.

 

[Dead Star]

That really depends on the producer behind the remaster (whose names are oftne unknown). Even today it is rather easy to stumble upon a remaster that has been overcompressed to hell and back.
Remasters really are hit or miss, and I do have to admit it, even though I prefer CDs over vinyls, like, massively.

There was a whole phase in the 90s and early 2000s with older artists and bands remastering their entire catalogs on CD. These releases were generally louder sounding from the original CDs that were better quality, even if they were compressed sounding.

I remember the releases from many of the bigger name Metal bands doing this. The Judas Priest and Iron Maiden remasters were much louder than their original CDs, and a good example of the "Loudness War" that was starting to gain traction online. RoadRunner records had several poor remasters that were far too loud.

The worst remasters I've ever heard was the Megadeth catalog from the early 2000s. Those were a special case, since Mustaine decided to remix everything and completely changed the dynamics on those albums. The 80s albums sound completely different from the originals, lacking the raw punch that has been replaced by muddy mixing. I used to own the entire collection. The worst part is that Mustaine pulled a George Lucas where he had the original Megadeth catalog go out of print and be replaced by his remixes, much like what happened with the Star Wars Special Editions replacing the originals. If there's ever a topic about remastered albums, this is one discography worth breaking down in detail.