I love music, as I’m sure most of us do. I vividly remember discovering Apple Music Radio and listening to anime music for hours in my bedroom, comfortably curled up on my bed, convinced I was deeply misunderstood (I was not. I was eleven). Though streaming music was initially a magical experience for me and certainly helped me develop my taste in my teenage years, I’ve grown increasingly tired with the ease of access services like Spotify and Apple Music offer.
The more I streamed music, the less special it seemed. There was something so… distinct about buying an entire album on iTunes as a kid because I liked a single song and discovering, Oh, I really like this band! It was a $9.99 risk, but I was willing to take it to potentially find my next favorite song. Also, having to actually purchase albums prevented me from over-consuming music and failing to fully appreciate each and every song. Buying an album meant I was committing something to it, and since I had to use my own money, it also meant I chose my music far more carefully. For me, buying my own music makes the listening experience slower, more intentional, and more rewarding.
My problem with buying music on iTunes was that despite purchasing it, I didn’t actually own it. I had an album disappear off of my phone after the artist removed it from the platform, and I was MAD. I spent money on that album! You can’t just… take it away from me! It was in that moment that I realized I didn’t actually have any power over my digital purchases, at least not through iTunes. I needed something physical, something I could touch and keep in my room, but records were usually obscenely expensive and most CD players were similarly priced. Also, neither were very portable forms of music. I concluded that cassette tapes were my best bet.
A few months ago, I visited a local business with a friend (our very own writer Laila Clarke!), and we were surprised to see cassette tape players on sale. We bought them for about $30, which wasn’t a bad deal considering that they also could play radio and could connect to Bluetooth in addition to playing tapes. The real appeal, of course, was the cassette tapes. Finally, I could live my “intentional music” dream and actually have control of my ownership at the same time!
Our next goal was to find cassette tapes, because neither Clarke or I owned any, being in our early twenties and all. We went to a record store downtown and hunted through their huge collection of tapes, most of which were donated by kindly older folks. It was amazing to see just how many older people were willing to share their music with the younger generations, but unfortunately, it also meant that most of the tapes dated to around the 70s. Also, a lot of the store was already picked clean of the good tapes before we got there, and most of the leftovers were low-quality recordings of live shows, 50s hits collections, or music approximately two people have ever listened to.
Eventually I found a U2 live show tape from the late 80s, and decided to start with that. I bought the tape for 75 cents (imagine my surprise when the cashier told me the price)!
U2 was decent enough, but I obviously wanted a few more options. To find more tapes, I visited Bandcamp, an indie music vendor. I sorted by albums that had cassette tape purchases available and wound up buying In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, a classic album very well-known in indie music spaces.
My mom also contributed significantly to my current tape collection, as she so generously gave me TONS of tapes she still had from years ago. I got a few more new tapes for Christmas as well: the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack from my mom, two My Chemical Romance albums and two The Clash hits collections from my dad, and Radiohead’s Okay Computer from my partner. Now, I have a very substantial tape collection!
I feel such a sense of ownership over the tapes compared to any form of digital music. Nobody can take my tapes away just because an artist decided they didn’t like their old song anymore or because the album got region-restricted or for any other reason. When I choose to listen to something, it’s a whole experience, something I commit to. I have to physically take out the tape, put it in the player, snap it shut, and press the play button. I listen to the album in order to avoid fast-forwarding or reversing, which gets annoying. I flip the tape in the middle of the album to listen to the B-side. It’s clunky, slow, and perfect. The cassette tape player lends itself to a far greater appreciation of the music than a fast-paced streaming service could ever offer me.
At the risk of sounding pretentious, I’d recommend everyone that wants to experience music intentionally and not as an endless algorithmic stream invest in a cassette tape player and tapes.