Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #3

andrewstuart wrote: post #2

I have some nostalgia for most technologies. Tapes and printers, not so much.

Tape is still amazing in terms of data density and storage longevity

I could probably fit my entire MP3 collection as FLAC on a single DLT. Shame abou the seek times but some kind of lower bitrate forward coding across the entire dataset, a cache and seek times might not matter as much for long plays.

It would be very silly to repurpose a DLT tape library for an audio jukebox: one which carried "lethal to enter if not disarmed" stickers and a ruinous electricity bill.

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#6

Post by thriftwy » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 8:45 AM UTC

What's interesting, 1980s was the heyday of Russian Rock tape albums.

Soviet government did actually go after artists for doing live concerts (on the grounds of illegal enterpreneurship†), but not after tape recording stuff. You could duplicate as many tape albums as you wished in specialized tape copying booths, as well as at home if you had the hardware.

† You are probably wondering whether there was "legal" enterpreneurship option in the late USSR. Basically, nope, not before Perestroika kicked in.

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#7

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 8:46 AM UTC

"Home taping is killing music"

The record companies did a fantastic job of killing music all by themselves, the quality has absolutely cratered and the occasional great artist that has made it through the long slog to recognition has done so despite the music industry, not because of.

I spent a fortune on various formats and when streaming came along I simply refused to participate. I'm simply not going to pay a third time for music that I already legally own.

Note that the following was written well before streaming came along, but it is an excellent article on the realities of the music industry from the artists perspective written by Janis Ian:

https://web.archive.org/web/20070509181400/http://www.janisi...

There is a fair chance that if you're under 40 that you've never heard of her, but I suggest you give her music a try as well, it is at least as good as her writing.

And another one by Courtney Love:

https://www.salon.com/2000/06/14/love_7/

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#8

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 8:47 AM UTC

ggm wrote: post #5

3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tape is still amazing in terms of data density and storage longevity

I could probably fit my entire MP3 collection as FLAC on a single DLT. Shame abou the seek times but some kind of lower bitrate forward coding across the entire dataset, a cache and seek times might not matter as much for long plays. It would be very silly to repurpose a DLT tape library for an audio jukebox: one which carried "lethal to enter if not disarmed" stickers and a ruinous electricity bill.

At a half decent compression rate it probably fits on a large micro SD card as well, unless you have thousands of records.

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#9

Post by meindnoch » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 8:52 AM UTC

ggm wrote: post #5

3cats-in-a-coat wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tape is still amazing in terms of data density and storage longevity

I could probably fit my entire MP3 collection as FLAC on a single DLT. Shame abou the seek times but some kind of lower bitrate forward coding across the entire dataset, a cache and seek times might not matter as much for long plays. It would be very silly to repurpose a DLT tape library for an audio jukebox: one which carried "lethal to enter if not disarmed" stickers and a ruinous electricity bill.

Why would you store MP3 as FLAC?

Re: Home Taping Is Killing Music: When the music industry waged war on the cassette

#10

Post by Cthulhu_ » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 8:59 AM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #7

"Home taping is killing music" The record companies did a fantastic job of killing music all by themselves, the quality has absolutely cratered and the occasional great artist that has made it through the long slog to recognition has done so despite the music industry, not because of. I spent a fortune on various formats and when streaming came along I simply refused to participate. I'm simply not going to pay a thir…

I pay for streaming music because I've pirated all my other music, and it's convenient. Quality is subjective, I'm no audiophile and unless I'm using it on the go with low data mode on, I can't hear the difference... except the one time with a more obscure song, but I reported that and they fixed it. Maybe that was an accidental low data mode though.