Cassettes were my first form of audio enjoyment. I had Billy Joel and Michael Jackson tapes at an early age and quickly grew into Guns n' Roses, Metallica, and Ozzy tapes. I'm sure I collected about 50 tapes that I played on a My First Sony mini-boom-box with one speaker, until I bit the bullet and bought a CD player.
Now I own maybe 10 cassettes, which have accumulated dust, 300+ CDs, and roughly 100 vinyl albums. I do believe that I still have a Metallica "Garage Days Re-visited" cassette, which is rather rare.
But this recent short blog states that Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth continues to listen and distribute his music via audio cassettes.
Audio cassettes do have a great sound--the first ten listens. Because the playback head physically touches the tape it wears it out each time. But in general, audio cassettes do have great sound. Up until the digital revolution, all music was recorded on analog tapes, of course not the ones you placed into your car or walkman.
I'm sure if there is someone who enjoys audio cassettes and actively collects them, they are in heaven. I'm sure the prices are down to less than a quarter for used cassettes.
I still have my parents old JVC dual cassette player. Not really hooked up, but it wouldn't take much to hook it up to the same amp that I used for my vinyl. Maybe some mid-80s tape hiss is over due?
My mother has recently asked me to throw away nearly 100 cassettes that I dubbed from other cassettes and recorded from the radio. I wonder if she'll ask me to do the same in ten years when CDs are considered dead?
I for one, welcome our new audio cassette collectors and their intriguing look back at a truly obsolete format. But trash for treasure, I'm sure.