Thinking about cassettes
#I keep thinking about cassette tapes. Specifically about their environmental impact.
I don't see this discussed much or widely. Cassettes seem to be "in" at the moment, especially for ambient and vaporwave releases on e.g. Bandcamp. Some people buy them without having what to play them on. Not sure how well known is that tapes have a nasty habit of shedding after a couple of decades (as in the particles falling off the carrier tape to which they're "glued"). All that dirt ends up on the cassette deck transport and it starts malfunctioning with otherwise healthy tapes. In the end you're left with a piece of plastic only good for throwing away.
Cassette tape is my favourite format. I'm conflicted about this. For now it feels like the right thing to do is to use it as an effect (for e.g. mixing or mastering), but not sell it as a thing.
Something about the act of selling cassettes still feels off to me.