It was not that long ago...

[Hardbopjazz]

… when audio cassettes were the new wave in audio. I’m talking about the ones put out by the record companies and not the ones we make ourselves. Shit, I even have some jazz CD’s on cassettes. I just broke down and bought “Homecoming, Live at the Village Vanguard:” by Dexter Gordon on CD. Anyone else still harboring any cassettes put out by record companies? I think Columbia put out the most jazz cassettes in the 1970 and early 80. I have one Woody Shaw that I haven’t upgraded yet. That one will be the next.

[Chuck Nessa]

Never thought cassettes were an "advance", only convenient.

[Dan Gould]

When I started buying jazz in 1988, cassettes were a fairly significant part of my purchases, at least prior to the acquisition of a CD player. I'd say I was around 70-30 used vinyl vs cassettes, then eventually CDs probably went to 80%, cassettes to zero, and most got pitched when I re-bought them on CD.

Come to think of it, I'd have to say that was the first of many times I've re-purchased an item in a new format.

[Kalo]

There was a brief time when cassettes were the best-selling form of pre-recorded music in the States (and probably world-wide). I never liked 'em myself, except for making copies of music I already owned on LP or that I "borrowed" from friends. I never really felt like I owned the music if I only had it on cassette. On the other hand, making mixtapes was another way of "owning" the music, putting it into your own contexts. So, yeah, I loved my cassette player(s) and the freedom and abilities it offered me, but I never bought any pre-recorded tapes, ever.

[Alexander]

I have "Expansions" by McCoy Tyner in a commerical cassette. I think that's the only tape I still own.

When I first started buying music, I was fairly divided between LPs and tapes. I remember buying a mid-80s reissue of "Please, Please Me" by the Beatles on LP (my friend Henry thought I was nuts at the time). I also bought "Radio KAOS" by Roger Waters and "The Final Rip Off" by Monty Python on LP. Once my turntable (which my parents had bought me for Christmas in 1983. I remember that I also got a copy of "Thriller" on LP the same year) crapped out, I bought cassettes exclusively until I got my first CD player in about 1993. Then I traded in my tapes for CDs.

[GA Russell]

When I got my first cassette player in 1969 I also got a couple of pre-recorded cassettes - the first album by Manfred Mann Chapter Three and the second album by The Fourth Way called The Sun and the Moon something something Together.

I don't think I ever again paid full price for a cassette, but I sometimes picked up a cutout. There were two times in the early 80s when I found a slew of ECMs for 99 cents each. I think I picked up two dozen of those.

[Michael Weiss]

In the late 70s I remember driving around in a friend's car listening to Trane Live in Seattle on 8-Track!

[sidewinder]

In the late 70s I remember driving around in a friend's car listening to Trane Live in Seattle on 8-Track!

Did you ever get to your destination with that one spinning?

First 2 cassettes I ever got were actually Blue Note/Libertys of 'Sixth Sense' and 'Caramba'. Mail order deletions - someone must have arranged a shipload of them over here from NYC. First Blue Notes I ever saw !

[Michael Weiss]

In the late 70s I remember driving around in a friend's car listening to Trane Live in Seattle on 8-Track!

Did you ever get to your destination with that one spinning?

We had no destination - just driving around the hilly countryside outside of Bloomington, Indiana in the middle of the night.

[brownie]

Never purchased a recorded cassette. Used cassettes only to record off the radio.

I had a number of interesting broadcasts. Still have the cassettes but I have no way of playing them nowadays. My cassette players are home are all broken. Used to listen to cassettes from the player in the cars.

My current car has no cassette player!