Update: Thank you guys on this, want 100% sure what to do, but overall clear communication of conditions is probably the best way to go.
For the different medias we’ll have a “shit to mint condition” or STM for short: for Vinyls, CDs and of course Cassettes. For those medias that are under like a 3/5 we use restorative methods like normal cleaning and deoxidation. If we do end up in a situation where we need to restore a cassette beyond our capabilities it’ll be marked 1/5 to 2/5 and sold cheaper with reference to a cassette restoration service or a guide on restoring them themselves, which may include info to replace tapes if they so wish. anything way past recovery / not worth recovery can be used as up-cycle arts for local artists or in house (basically just us messing about haha)
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Ok, so we’re planning on opening a music+Alternative store in the near future and one of the medias were wanting to stock are cassettes especially since they’re becoming more popular. However to anyone who knows about cassette tapes, they are extremely susceptible to yk. dying
While our stock atm is small, we already got one that is completely fucked on one side of the tape (muffled to no audio in one ear on both A and B sides) effectively the cassette is not good for sale. We’ve looked over some posts and some say to replace the tape and re-record the album, however they’re all personal collectors, not sale. While the tape is dead, it’s not authentic or original if it’s repaired or well, realistically tape being replaced. If it was our personal collection no worries! But this is marked for sale. Maybe if it’s marked as “repaired” or something? Idk how other music stores handle this.
So long story short, would it be ethical to replace the tape and re-record the album and keep or for sale (and also marking it as repaired)? Or take the L and keep for our personal collection? We’re leaning on the latter, but if were over thinking things lmk thx
Cassettes are a shitty medium for long-term storage. They degrade pretty fast even when stored under perfect conditions.
So only sell cassettes made up to a few months ago. If you want to trade in used stuff, do vinyl or CDs.Most of the music medias will be new actually! But we still want to have some older/vintage stuff too :3
It’s ethical to sell anything, as long as you’re completely upfront and honest about any issues you’re aware of, perform your due diligence in identifying any issues, and price it accordingly.
Thank you, we’ll look into maybe a grading system for the different medias!
Why even consider taking the L? Sounds like you should be getting your money back. Who sold the tape to you, and how did they represent it?
This cassette was from a small mom and pop shop, we got it cuz it was a but cheaper than average and we don’t mind getting a few “in the door” albums cuz our main income would be other stock. But taking a full L would be, well an L lol.
And no disrespect to that shop, he had it stored all cassettes in a proper manner, just probably slipped the quality assurance check. Theres no way to refund it either way and we’re not mad at the shop keep tbh
Both? Rip it digitally, rip via dubbing, sell the OG as is and offer dubs and maybe even cleaned up versions. A friend was selling Spotify playlists slapped on tapes for a bit, the worst of both worlds to me but peeps seemed to like them.
I’ve got Portishead - Dummy in my deck at the moment, the tape is as old as the album is, I’ve binned most stuff that got this distorted but Dummy with ancient tape distortion is aging like a fine wine.
Distortion is fine, but it’s completely gone on one side and isn’t much fine wine. Ig we could preserve the original tape in some way and have it retapped for listening. As for selling playlists, without music rights it wouldn’t be possible in our position, though its something we’ve thought of. Thank you for the idea!!
Dead or damaged media can repurposed and sold as an new thing. Art and craft items using old vinyl, cassettes, floppy disks, etc. as a medium to create something new is growing in popularity too. If you can find someone making that kind of art at a show, I’m sure some kind of mutually beneficial arrangement could be made so that you both can profit off that dead media.
Oo thats a really good idea! we’ll keep an eye out and maybe even do some in house stuff too :3
Have you tried any of the restoration techniques? It doesn’t sound like sticky shed (baking required), but more like oxide degradation or shedding (old age) Cleaning the tape, and trying a tape player that has tone control (equaliser too, but less so) to see what you can get out of it and backing it up. That whole process excites a few people, so you could actually sell the tape as it is, but would have to let them know first. Or you could give up DIY and invest in tape restoration professionals, whom I don’t think are too expensive for obvious reasons.
But there are people that will pay for degraded tapes to try and restore them, and would have higher end audio equipment to play them on etc.
Search around for guides and whatever you think may be the issue, try those first if you don’t fancy replacing the tape in the cassette.
Right now we’re in VERY early stages of everything, so we haven’t tried anything just yet (excited to do so!) Also forgot oxidation is a huge issue! May be that since the cassette is a bit discolored. Thanks!
Great idea, good luck with it all and I hope you succeed. 👍👍
Thank you!!! Can’t wait to announce it :3
To me this is a question of audio fidelity. What source would you use to re-record the tape? While it’s not unheard of to use a digital source, depending on the year this cassette was pressed it might have been a high quality analog master tape. It’s unlikely that you’re going to reproduce the exact same experience that the listener would have had from the original tape. And if you’re selling to audiophiles, they’ll know if it sounds off.
No, realistically it would be impossible to replicate the exact without the master. So far from other suggestions we’ve got:
Use other restorative methods first, cleaning and de-oxidizing, etc. Maybe grade the medias so people know what they’re buying. If we do end up replacing the tape itself, have the original tape preserved and mark it as “replaced tape” but only if the customer wants to do so or better yet find references to another company able to restore them better than us.
Are you sure it’s a good idea when there are already a few semi-famous stores like Bandcamp or Subvert out there? Is it for your band only? And who is “we,” is it serious?
We have DID, we as in I if you need to. And no were not a band, were wanting to open a store lol.
The cassettes in question are old and no longer in production, while new cassettes are going to be stocked, we also want some older vintage ones too, ones you can’t get on Band Camp. Physical media is growing in popularity where we are.
Though the question in short was: would replacing the tape on a cassette thats marked for sale be a good or bad thing?
Small companies repackage cd jewel cases and sell them as new albums all the time so I wouldn’t worry about it too much.
We see, we’ll have to find some (not work around) but rather some way to make the experience for customers better with buying cassettes while also staying open/preserving the original tapes.
