[Quartz Obsession]
The cassette tape
December 15, 2017
Call it a comeback
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Currently, one company is working to avert a disaster that no one expected in the digital-music era: The world is running out of cassette tapesâspecifically, the specialized magnetic tape that stores music in glorious analog detail.
There was a good chance that cassette tapes were going to join their sibling the 8-track in recorded music obscurity. But cassettes are actually enjoying a resurgence right nowâand we have Justin Bieber to thank for it.
[The Wall Street Journal]( releases from the pop star, along with artists like The Weeknd and Eminem, for kickstarting a cassette renaissance, driven by equal parts nostalgia and economics. Essentially, cassettes are basking in the retro glow of vinyl records: Theyâre possessable, giftable, hand-holdable, but also affordable.
Letâs rewind.
renaissance problems
Save the tape
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The shortage of magnetic tape is intertwined with the even larger renaissance of vinyl records: Both are surfing the same wave of nostalgia for old recording formats, and the vinyl boom has created a new niche for cassettes. Theyâre cheaper and require less lead time for production.
[The Journal]( reports that a manufacturer called National Audio Company has been managing a dwindling stockpile of tape since most US suppliers shut down. Itâs restarting production to satisfy demand from musicians like Metallica and Lin-Manuel Miranda, who insisted that âThe Hamilton Mixtapeâ be available as a cassette.
âTape-making is complicated,â the Journal notes. âThe process includes a finely calibrated slurry of metallic particles and polyurethane, miles of Mylar, 48 feet of ovens, a small amount of radioactivity and a very precise slicer.â You can watch a video about National Audio [here](.
By The Digits
[129,000:]( Number of cassette tapes sold in 2016
[74%:]( Growth in cassette tape sales versus 2015
[3.8 mm:]( Width of cassette tape
[95%:]( Proportion of cassettes produced in the western hemisphere manufactured by National Audio Company
[48 feet:]( Length of ovens needed to manufacture cassette tape at the National Audio factory
Ribbon of rust
How does cassette tape work?
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Cassette tape is coated with magnetic particles, either iron oxide or chromium oxide. These particles are shaped like tiny needles, about 400 million per inch.
Next, the particles are mixed with binder andâunder extreme dust-free conditionsâtransferred onto wide rolls of polyester plastic film. Once the coating has been smoothed, dried, and polished, itâs cut into 3.8mm-wide strips.
[cassettetapes_1]
The process of recording sounds onto a cassette tape is simple. Once the cassette is placed in the tape recorder, the magnetic tape inside the cassette passes around the five magnetic heads of the recorder.
Each magnetic head realigns the magnetic particles on the passing tape in patterns that correspond to the loudness and frequency (rate of vibration) of the incoming sounds. The magnetic coating allows sound to be either recorded or erased.
[cassettetapes_2]
[Learn more here.](
take me down this ð° hole!
The [New York Times 1981 guide to buying cassette tapes]( “All these tape types have slightly different sonic flavors. One might sound more brilliant while another has a more mellow character, differences that one sound buff has compared to the fine distinctions between various brews of beer.”
Pop Quiz!
What album sold the most copies on cassette in 2016?
Purpose by Justin Bieber Purple Rain by Prince Guardians of the GalaxyLed Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin
Correct. 4,000 copies of Guardians of the Galaxy cassette tapes were sold in 2016
Incorrect. That's an 8-track answer in a cassette tape world.
If your inbox doesnât support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email.
Quotable
âTo me, making a tape is like writing a letterâthereâs a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. Youâve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention ⦠and then youâve got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you canât have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you canât have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless youâve done the whole thing in pairs and ⦠oh, there are loads of rules.â
[-Nick Hornby, âHigh Fidelityâ](
Handy Guide
The tale of the tapes
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[Ferric Tape:](
[cassettetapes_3]
This is the cheapest type of cassette tape. Ferric tape is coated with iron oxide, which is why tech engineers refer to them as âribbons of rust.â Ferric tape was the first type of cassette tape and has been upgraded over the years to include smaller and more evenly distributed magnetic particles.
[Chrome Tape:](
[cassettetapes_4]
The second type of magnetic tape developed. Chrome tape is coated with chromium oxide, which gives it more clearly defined high frequencies, exact definition of musical details, and a quieter background.
[Chrome-Equivalent Tape:](
[cassettetapes_5]
Also referred to as high-bias tape, this tape is coated with ferric particles chemically bonded with cobalt. It achieves a close sonic resemblance to chrome tape. Chrome-equivalent tape yields excellent sound and ranks among the favorites of audio fans who focus on high fidelity.
[Ferrichrome Tape:](
[cassettetapes_6]
A thin layer of chrome is superimposed on a ferric substrate which emphasizes the high and low ends of the sonic spectrum. This type of tape appeals to people who listen to cassettes in the car where the treble and bass are often drowned in the road and engine noise.
[Metal Tape:](
[cassettetapes_7]
This is the only type of tape that uses metal particles instead of oxides. Metal tape is used when making live recordings of musical performances through microphones.
Timeline
[1928:]( Influenced by magnetic wire recording, Fritz Pfleumer invents magnetic tape for sound recording in Germany.
[1932:]( The first reel-to-reel tape recorder, the Magnetophon, is developed by engineers of the German Electronic Company.
[cassettetapes_8]
[1936:]( The first public use of the Magnetophon records the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Thomas Beecham in Ludwigshafen.
[1946:]( The first American-built Magnetophons are manufactured in San Francisco.
[1963:]( Philips develops the first cassette tape and cassette recorder.
[cassettetapes_9]
[1966:]( Pre-recorded compact cassette tapes (Musicassettes) in stereo come on the market.
[1968:]( The first cassette player is built into a car radio.
[cassettetapes_10]
[1975:]( Compact cassette tapes are used for storing data in computers.
[1988:]( The cassette tape enjoys its best year of sales in the US, selling 450.1 million units.
[1993:]( Cassette tape sales start their steep decline as the CD rises.
Origin story
It took the initiative of US Army Signal Corps officer Major John T. âJackâ Mullin, to introduce magnetic tape and tape recording to America. While based in Paris during and after WWII, Mullin noticed the âliveâ sound quality when listening to classical music broadcasted from the German Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG) station.
After the war was over, Mullin and his team confiscated [German magnetophons and 50 reels of tape](.
[cassettetapes_11]
Once Mullin got back to America, he and his partner Bill Palmerâof W.A. Palmer Filmsâbuilt two Magnetophons with American electronics. After this, dozens of American companies joined the race to build the best professional and consumer-based tape recorders.
Quotable II
âPlus, tapes fit in your breast pocket, which is pretty great,â
â Lin-Manuel Miranda, âHamiltonâ composer
Make a case out of it
Why listen to cassettes?
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Before CDs or MP3s, there were four ways you could listen to recorded music: vinyl records, reel-to-reel tapes, 8-tracks, and cassettes.
Vinyl was the best option for sound quality and cassettes were best for portability. Cassette tapes were the first technology that let you walk and drive around with music in your hands or in your stereo. Combined with their cheap price, this feature gave the cassette tape a good 20-year run of popularity.
Nostalgia and analog chic aside, artists are releasing their albums on cassette tapes today for two reasons. Cassettes are a lot cheaper to manufacture than vinyl records. A hundred cassettes can be made in a few weeks for only a few hundred dollars, compared with months and thousands of dollars for vinyl.
The second reason is cassettes inspire fans to actually buy music, rather than stream it. Artists are also packaging cassettes with download coupons so that fans can have digital downloads as well. Cassette doesnât exactly have the audio quality of vinyl, but it does have a lo-fi analog appeal. âThe hissing sound thatâs always in the background on a tape, the imperfections of the tape running on the heads of a tape playerâitâs a unique quality,â Los Angeles rapper Alexander Spit told [the Wall Street Journal](. And collecting them doesnât have the economic barrier that vinyl can bring: Even modern [high-end players cost less than $150,]( and new and used cassettes can be procured for only a few dollars.
ð£ The ultimate mixtape!!
Time to jam
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Yesterday we asked you to write in with your favorite songs from mixtapes gone by:
âMy dadâs carâa 2000 Volkswagen Cabrio convertibleâdoes not have a CD player, only a tape player. To this day he makes mixtapes for that car, a painstaking process that I bypass with one of those tapes you can plug into the headphone jack. But I have vivid memories of learning to drive stick shift in that car to âOne Headlightâ (The Wallflowers) and âThe Wayâ (Fastball). Such great tunes. The effect just isnât the same when I listen to the same tracks on my phone.â
â Obsession reader Olivia
âI used to listen to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack on cassette. This was in middle schoolâaround 1997âand I was starting to go to school dances. I remember thinking that, if I practiced dancing in my room, I would have the moves I needed for the dance. I cannot recall exactly where I got the tape; I think I heard one of the songs, and asked my parents to get me a copy. Once I heard the soundtrack, I was hooked. And âNight Feverâ was the clear favorite. Still use some of the moves I developed there today! Mostly at weddings.â
â Obsession reader Derek
We had so many great suggestions, we just had to compile them in a mix. Itâs 23 songs long with a runtime of exactly 90 minutes (the length of most audio cassettes). Weâre aware that doesnât leave time for crossfades, but since you can skip directly from song to song, we didnât see the need for silence.
Click below for the Ultimate Quartz Obsession Mixtape ð
[The Ultimate Quartz Obsession Mixtape](
Poll
Which do you prefer, the perfection of digital music or the gritty reality of analog audio?
[Click here to vote](
I want to hear the imperfections of life coming out of my speakers: Analog all the way.I can carry the worldâs music, in flawless high fidelity, right in my pocket: Digital for me, please.Iâm not sure the difference is anything more than hipster propaganda.
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The Fine Print
In yesterdayâs [Choco Pie]( poll, we asked you about your feelings concerning the chocolate-covered marshmallow cookie treats. Most of you (33%) said you wanted your sweets sans bigotry; only slightly fewer (28%) said youâd be game for a back-alley meet-up in order to get that sugar fix.
Todayâs email was written by [Quincey Tickner](.
Images: Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording (reel-to-reel tapes), Philips (Philips equipment), AP Photo/Nati Harnik (unwound audio tape)
The correct answer to the quiz is Guardians of the Galaxy.
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