I just released an album on cassette and definitely has _not_ poor audio quality. Anyway I remember a lot of releases with poor audio quality too, but this is more the problem of the production and not the cassette itself. All studio recordings back in the days were made with the same tape material, ferro oxid, sames as a Type I cassette.

Vinyl is nowhere near as inconvenient as tapes and sounds way better. And I say this as someone who used to lug around big bags of 12" records as a DJ! It's pretty annoying, but it's still better than having to rewind, and deal with the appalling durability of cassettes!

> Vinyl is nowhere near as inconvenient as tapes

Bringing your own mixtape to a party or a bar or a friend’s car was a thing. Bringing a stack of records seems much less convenient.

I don't do either, but, on the face of it, actually DJing and bringing a random mixtape to a party seem to have very different requirements.

Digital seems to have solved both, though.

Nothing has managed to capture the mixtape model. A tangible object made with care you could give as a gift and was unique and valuable. CDs got close but people didn’t have the gear to make them until mp3s had arrived and overshadowed them. Plus CDs with handwritten tracklists didn’t feel as nice as tapes and blank CDs were invariably ugly.

Music as an object is a thing and playlists are in no way the same. You can’t even control the music on a playlist as it’s in the gift of the streamer.

I think the qualities of a cassette mentioned have clearly helped with the mixtape model. But I can't help but wonder if it wasn't also a product of that particular era.

It certainly depends on geographical zones, too, but I remember people burning audio cds for quite a while, and taking them on the go with portable players. This was quite widespread before portable mp3 players became common.

Hell, where I grew up, cassettes were still in regular use until the end of the 90s, and mixtapes had grown increasingly rare.

“The two things that really drew me to vinyl were the expense and the inconvenience”

https://cartoonstockart.com/featured/the-two-things-that-rea...

The sad thing is that's pretty accurate.

I do value the inconvenience. When I put an album on, I put an album on. I don't hit next, random, go wandering off down rabbitholes. I put the album on.

And I do see the cost as a feature, somewhat. It feels like I got something for my money, in a way that paying for a zip doesn't.

That is what still draws me to the movie theater. I'm stuck there for a 2+ hour experience I can't push pause on.

I kind of regard physical media, and especially analog media, as merch these days. And to be honest, they're a great kind of merch.

Vinyl is big, which makes for a nice display of album art. 50% of vinyl buyers don’t own a record player. People play their convenience and high quality digital music, while displaying the vinyl albums as decorations.

https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/50-of-vinyl-buyers-do...