December 8, 2025 • 6 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
So you told me something during the break and I
got that, I know, just so interested to learn more.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, we talked a lot about our health insurance during
the break. There had to have been something else.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Well you said that, and we'll get into that a
little bit later too, because wow, is that industry just
a mess and it's just hurting so many people. You said,
cassette tapes are making a comeback.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, they are. US sales have grown two hundred and
four percent just in the first quarter of this year.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Now you're talking about the when I was a kid
in your car. You know, some cars in the eighties
and early nineties had CD players, but most automobiles had
the cassette tape. You'd buy your favorite album and you
would put it in and it would play, and you
could actually rewind it and it would you know, that
(00:55):
sort of cassette tape.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, why that sort of one. It's a mixture of things.
Some of it is because it's intentional. It's like a
hands on experience. Like you mentioned, you have to actually
rewind or fast forward. Some of it has to do
with retro appeal and nostalgia. It's got a little bit
of charm to it.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
The look people want to look cool, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And there's also it's tangible. You can touch it and
feel it and hold it, so I'm like streaming.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I remember specifically in this must have been the late nineties,
early two thousand the acts I drove myself, so it
had to probably be early two thousands going to the
old Karma Records on thirty eighth Street and they still
had cassette tapes. But I bet you haven't seen people
actively selling cassette tapes and then you know in a
junk bins as new. I can remember buying Boston's debut
(01:51):
album on cassette at Karma Records on thirty eighth Street
in the early two thousands, but it has to have
been twenty twenty years or more since anybody has active
carried cassette tapes in their stores.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Okay. So now you've got artists like Taylor Swift and
Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga and the weekend they're all
releasing their music on cassette editions. keV to go with
their albums that they're putting out too.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
You're the really eclectic member of this group. You're also
the musician. You actively seek out things on vinyl. Correct, Yeah,
I like the records.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Why he wants to drop the needle.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
You know, I think when you buy something like that,
you're committed to listening to the full album and getting
the full experience. That's why I like it.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's a great point because we've talked about this. One
of the problems I have with the streaming is I'm
always feeling like there's something better, Like I can't just
sit and watch something because in my mind, while I'm
missing out on some other documentary that's better, I'm wasting
my time doing this. And then you just end up flipping,
spending thirty minutes flipping through everything, and then realizing now
I'm just pissed off because I spent all this time
(02:57):
looking for something better instead of watching something saying, if
you have to commit to it, this is my thing.
I don't have something to press a button and go
to the next thing. I'm in on this album.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, and you get a good quality experience from that.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It was interesting. When I was visiting my daughter over Thanksgiving,
her roommate had gotten home and brought with her a
DVD of a movie they wanted to watch.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
She was very excited. She found the DVD. Yeah, and
my daughter had mentioned to me we used to have
thousands of CDs and she was really bummed that we
got rid of all of them. Yeah, thought, well, yeah,
because everything's available streaming now. Sure, and she is now
growing a CD collection. We didn't even talk about cassettes.
(03:43):
I mean that like even predates her life.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Remember they had the little binders that you could put
your CDs in. Did you slide them in the little
way so that way you could see them and easily
flip flip through, flip through them.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And you carry that big binder around with you everywhere.
You had it in your car now the passenger seat. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
The A set tape is interesting though, because keV backed
me up on this. A lot of people like the
vinyl because they say the sound is better.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, that's what they say. That there's things that you
can pick up on in the mix. Yeah, clear, I
guess when you listen to it on vinyl.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But having played many a cassette tape, the sound is crap.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, yeah it is. There's a nice hissy.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I don't think the packaging is as cool too, because
that's the other thing with the vinyl is the packaging
and the liner notes, Yeah and all that.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, you're right, because with a with a record, it's
a big thing. So you can see all the things
laid out the album art like cassette, it's so it's condensed, right,
it's a little bitty You're not you're not getting any
of that.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
How how often do you you used to record your
favorite radio station that is a cassette.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
That is a great question. That is absolutely something that
I used to do because if you had little Rob
Kendall that So, there was a radio station in Brownsburg,
the first one ended up working at. It was an
oldies station at the time, and they were very pleased
that anyone would call them for anything. So if you
called and asked them to play something, they would usually
(05:05):
play it in a somewhat timely fashion. And so if
you if you recorded properly, you get enough of the
songs you wanted that you didn't have to go out
and actually buy the album. You absolutely could, right, right.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
So a lot of people, yeah, it's it's a retro thing, right, nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
It also speaks to the power that we have put
on these influencers or whatever, especially in a social media
era like it used to be. People at power. They
were influential you saw on the big screen. But they
couldn't come out and just make a blanket statement. They
had to have the buy in of their industry, record executives, whatever,
in order to do something. Now, someone like a Taylor
(05:45):
Swift can just issue some sort of statement and nine
million pissed off women mad at their boyfriends or husbands
just go do whatever she says. And so you're right.
She can say, hey, cassettes are cool, and for no
rhyme or reason whatsoever, everybody falls in line right there.
I mean, there's zero reason a cassette should come back, because,
like keV said, hey, there is validity to the album,
(06:07):
the idea of the nostalgia feel, the idea of the artwork,
the sound is is better if you're really into it.
None of that is true with the cassette tape. Nope,
none of it's true with the.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
K Taylor Swift. You know she's got her new music out,
The Life of a Showgirl.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I did not know that, well, you said, you know,
as though I followed Taylor Swift. Is this one also
about how much men have ruined her existence? I don't
know what it's about it This is also about how
nothing is her fault.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
But she released eighteen different physical versions, including cassette. Oh
eighteen Different Ways Someone Likes Money. It is Kendall and Casey.
It's ninety three WIDC.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
She should
So you told me something during the break and I
got that, I know, just so interested to learn more.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, we talked a lot about our health insurance during
the break. There had to have been something else.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Well you said that, and we'll get into that a
little bit later too, because wow, is that industry just
a mess and it's just hurting so many people. You said,
cassette tapes are making a comeback.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Yeah, they are. US sales have grown two hundred and
four percent just in the first quarter of this year.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Now you're talking about the when I was a kid
in your car. You know, some cars in the eighties
and early nineties had CD players, but most automobiles had
the cassette tape. You'd buy your favorite album and you
would put it in and it would play, and you
could actually rewind it and it would you know, that
(00:55):
sort of cassette tape.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, why that sort of one. It's a mixture of things.
Some of it is because it's intentional. It's like a
hands on experience. Like you mentioned, you have to actually
rewind or fast forward. Some of it has to do
with retro appeal and nostalgia. It's got a little bit
of charm to it.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
The look people want to look cool, okay.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
And there's also it's tangible. You can touch it and
feel it and hold it, so I'm like streaming.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I remember specifically in this must have been the late nineties,
early two thousand the acts I drove myself, so it
had to probably be early two thousands going to the
old Karma Records on thirty eighth Street and they still
had cassette tapes. But I bet you haven't seen people
actively selling cassette tapes and then you know in a
junk bins as new. I can remember buying Boston's debut
(01:51):
album on cassette at Karma Records on thirty eighth Street
in the early two thousands, but it has to have
been twenty twenty years or more since anybody has active
carried cassette tapes in their stores.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Okay. So now you've got artists like Taylor Swift and
Billie Eilish and Lady Gaga and the weekend they're all
releasing their music on cassette editions. keV to go with
their albums that they're putting out too.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
You're the really eclectic member of this group. You're also
the musician. You actively seek out things on vinyl. Correct, Yeah,
I like the records.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Why he wants to drop the needle.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
You know, I think when you buy something like that,
you're committed to listening to the full album and getting
the full experience. That's why I like it.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
That's a great point because we've talked about this. One
of the problems I have with the streaming is I'm
always feeling like there's something better, Like I can't just
sit and watch something because in my mind, while I'm
missing out on some other documentary that's better, I'm wasting
my time doing this. And then you just end up flipping,
spending thirty minutes flipping through everything, and then realizing now
I'm just pissed off because I spent all this time
(02:57):
looking for something better instead of watching something saying, if
you have to commit to it, this is my thing.
I don't have something to press a button and go
to the next thing. I'm in on this album.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Yeah, and you get a good quality experience from that.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
It was interesting. When I was visiting my daughter over Thanksgiving,
her roommate had gotten home and brought with her a
DVD of a movie they wanted to watch.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
She was very excited. She found the DVD. Yeah, and
my daughter had mentioned to me we used to have
thousands of CDs and she was really bummed that we
got rid of all of them. Yeah, thought, well, yeah,
because everything's available streaming now. Sure, and she is now
growing a CD collection. We didn't even talk about cassettes.
(03:43):
I mean that like even predates her life.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Remember they had the little binders that you could put
your CDs in. Did you slide them in the little
way so that way you could see them and easily
flip flip through, flip through them.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
And you carry that big binder around with you everywhere.
You had it in your car now the passenger seat. Now.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
The A set tape is interesting though, because keV backed
me up on this. A lot of people like the
vinyl because they say the sound is better.
Speaker 3 (04:06):
Yeah, that's what they say. That there's things that you
can pick up on in the mix. Yeah, clear, I
guess when you listen to it on vinyl.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
But having played many a cassette tape, the sound is crap.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah, yeah it is. There's a nice hissy.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
I don't think the packaging is as cool too, because
that's the other thing with the vinyl is the packaging
and the liner notes, Yeah and all that.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeah, you're right, because with a with a record, it's
a big thing. So you can see all the things
laid out the album art like cassette, it's so it's condensed, right,
it's a little bitty You're not you're not getting any
of that.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
How how often do you you used to record your
favorite radio station that is a cassette.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
That is a great question. That is absolutely something that
I used to do because if you had little Rob
Kendall that So, there was a radio station in Brownsburg,
the first one ended up working at. It was an
oldies station at the time, and they were very pleased
that anyone would call them for anything. So if you
called and asked them to play something, they would usually
(05:05):
play it in a somewhat timely fashion. And so if
you if you recorded properly, you get enough of the
songs you wanted that you didn't have to go out
and actually buy the album. You absolutely could, right, right.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
So a lot of people, yeah, it's it's a retro thing, right, nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
It also speaks to the power that we have put
on these influencers or whatever, especially in a social media
era like it used to be. People at power. They
were influential you saw on the big screen. But they
couldn't come out and just make a blanket statement. They
had to have the buy in of their industry, record executives, whatever,
in order to do something. Now, someone like a Taylor
(05:45):
Swift can just issue some sort of statement and nine
million pissed off women mad at their boyfriends or husbands
just go do whatever she says. And so you're right.
She can say, hey, cassettes are cool, and for no
rhyme or reason whatsoever, everybody falls in line right there.
I mean, there's zero reason a cassette should come back, because,
like keV said, hey, there is validity to the album,
(06:07):
the idea of the nostalgia feel, the idea of the artwork,
the sound is is better if you're really into it.
None of that is true with the cassette tape. Nope,
none of it's true with the.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
K Taylor Swift. You know she's got her new music out,
The Life of a Showgirl.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
I did not know that, well, you said, you know,
as though I followed Taylor Swift. Is this one also
about how much men have ruined her existence? I don't
know what it's about it This is also about how
nothing is her fault.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
But she released eighteen different physical versions, including cassette. Oh
eighteen Different Ways Someone Likes Money. It is Kendall and Casey.
It's ninety three WIDC.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
She should
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