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posted by cmn32480 on Monday November 13 2017, @06:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the what's-old-is-still-old-but-they-are-making-more dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

National Audio Co. is the only company in the U.S. that produces cassette tape. Now, as cassette tapes enjoy a resurgence in popularity, National Audio has less than a year's supply left of the stuff, The Wall Street Journal reports.

For the last 15 years, National Audio's co-owner and president Steve Stepp has been clinging to his company's dwindling supply of music-quality magnetic tape. In 2014, National Audio's South Korean supplier stopped making the material, so Stepp bought out their remaining stock before they shuttered — and has been left with a shrinking stockpile ever since.

Although the demand for tape has increased in recent years, the quality and supply has not; National Audio has long relied on outdated gear that Stepp jokes is "the finest equipment the 1960s has to offer." That's why the company — which makes cassettes for everyone from indie bands to Metallica — is planning to build the U.S.'s first high-grade tape manufacturing line in decades.

Crap! Where am I going to store my TRS-80 programs now?

Source: https://theweek.com/speedreads/735269/america-running-cassette-tape


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  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday November 13 2017, @08:37PM (5 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday November 13 2017, @08:37PM (#596442)

    Look at the autos from that era; they'll outlast anything produced today.

    Magnetic tape won't last however, just go and try to listen to that Def Leppard cassette you thought was so cool* in 1983.

    That is one of the reasons everyone converted their video tapes to DVD, quick before the signal disappeared.

    * It wasn't.

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  • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Monday November 13 2017, @09:06PM (3 children)

    by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 13 2017, @09:06PM (#596460)

    I bought it once on LP, 3 times on tape (car radio liked the taste of tapes, yum yum), and finally on CD. Yeah, I'm a fan. :)

    --
    The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
    • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday November 13 2017, @10:09PM (1 child)

      by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday November 13 2017, @10:09PM (#596506)

      Congratulations!!

      You are now entitled to pirate that album as many times as you like.

      • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday November 14 2017, @05:39PM

        by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 14 2017, @05:39PM (#596874)

        No need, I already ripped the CD.

        --
        The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 14 2017, @10:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 14 2017, @10:05AM (#596727)

      So after your car radio ate the tape, or at least after it ate the tape for the second time, it didn't occur to you that you might just make a copy of it onto blank tape and use that in your car?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 14 2017, @10:02AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 14 2017, @10:02AM (#596726)

    That is one of the reasons everyone converted planned forever to one day convert their video tapes to DVD

    FTFY ;-)