My Cassettes

Yay, flickr has got the "blog this" feature up and running for blogger (beta).

Not surprisingly, tapes cassettes were really good at capturing lots of audio around the time they were in existance, approximatley from the 70's to the 90's. This old tape popped up just as a reminder that some of the best content that is not music may still be lying in wait somewhere, in a back room, closet or attic.

This interview with esteemed comic creator neil gaiman, was reposted on a blog by Pete Ashton. He recounts the journey from tape to mp3.

The other day Andy G and I were going through our respective pre-CD music collections and he stumbled across the Gaiman tape. I told him the story and he asked if he could borrow it. Yes, I said, but you mustn't listen to it while I'm in the room. You should digitize it and stick it online, he said, and I scoffed, but only slightly. It lurked on the kitchen table for a while and one afternoon I snatched it up and popped it in the tape deck. My main concern was about myself coming over like a spoddy little teenager who doesn't know what the hell he's talking about but it didn't seem so bad. I guess I'm far enough away from that version of me now.

The content was valuable and prized enough to be digitized and uploaded for free and easy public consumption .

How many tape cassette treasures are still out there, lying in wait till they can be set free with a new digital rebirth?

This is an excellent example of exactly why digital formats win out over their physical counterparts, although would a 17 yr old audio file from that year been able to survive as easily?