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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the demand for tape has increased in recent years, the quality and supply has not; National Audio has long relied on outdated gear that Stepp jokes is "the finest equipment the 1960s has to offer."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
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 14 2017, @02:36PM
that's about right; 3.5MB or so per song with 128kpbs flat rate or VBR peaking to 384kbps.
it takes longer than 10 seconds to rip the albumns, though.. maybe 10 to 15 minutes each depending on how the audio transfer is accomplished. if its analog its the full play time... if its a slow reader [stuff is cheaper now than it used to be... because most pcs that have cd roms now don't advertise based on their performance, just that they have one] it will take longer even if not done via that analog method.