1/9/22 - magnetic tape

today is officially the second day i've had this website up and running! ive been tweaking and fixing the webpage for a bit, and i feel like its not completely horrible at this point, so a legitimate blog post is in order.

while i've been "hard at work" on re-learning css and html, i've been listening to my collection of cassette tapes. as someone who browses webpages on neocities, i appreciate music stored on mediums other than cds or other DRM-infested services. cassette tapes are the perfect medium for someone who doesnt care about very high quality playback, doesnt like spending that much money on music, and wants to be able to play them anywhere, on anything that's able to accept it.

i've found that collecting cassettes is also pretty cheap. most old cassettes can range anywhere from 0 to 8 dollars depending on where you're buying from, and newer cassettes can be around 10 dollars on average, and they usually come with a bandcamp link, where you can grab a DRM-free mp3 file. in nashville, where i'm currently living, there are a few places to get cassettes that i've visited to work on my collection, some of these places are better than others

• mckays - the biggest book/media shop in nashville has a very small cassette section. the majority of the section is christmas music, but i've found a few gems for a very reasonable price, my favorite cassette, a copy of TMBG's flood, was bought there for about 25 cents. some of the cassettes are damaged and heavily used, but most old media is.
• the groove - a small record shop in five points, they have a larger selection of better cassettes at a bit of a premium. they know what they have, and it's pretty nice stuff, its just expensive. the groove and grimey's are the two record shops ive visited in nashville that have new cassttes from artists that published in the past 5 years
• phonoluxe - a big record shop, primarily selling vinyl. cassettes are usually expensive, and have fallen apart after the first listen more often than they usually should. i've bought equipment from here, i would not reccomend buying cassettes unless you really want a particular classic rock album on tape. ( i got an oingo boingo album on cassette from here which i thought was awesome, it was probably a lot more expensive than it needed to be )
• alison's record shop - a very small record shop, that sells hi-fi equipment first and music second. cassettes are a very reasonable price here, and they accept anything, so you can run into bootleg recordings of albums and concerts for a buck, which is always a lot of fun when you know what you're getting.
• grimey's- this is the only record shop in nashville that i've seen carry cassettes produced by needlejuice, which you can usually only purchase online. this is a great place for new cassettes, and a pretty mediocre place for older ones.