Conference marvin::uk_music

    I personally rarely buy pre-recorded cassettes, be they singles or
    albums. Mainly because ..
    
    a) The quality of the tape is doubtful, you could be buying any old
       rubbish. (An alarmingly high number of cassettes sold in the UK are
       cheap imitations, I've heard 30% quoted)
    
    b) They suffer badly when used in faulty equipment (chewed up in the
       car) 
    
    c) The pain of having to rewind to find the bit you want again
    
    d) I don't have 2 tape recorders so I can't make compilations from
       pre-recorded tapes 
    
    e) Lets face it, records look better on the shelf than cassettes!
    
    Only exception is when the tape has something unavailable on disc on
    it. 
    
    As for cassette singles, well not that many people buy singles these
    days of any description. Most people who like chart music go for the    
    "Thats what I call music 83" type LP's and save their money. 
    
    Talking about the BPI, they also announced recently that only the first
    five formats of a single count for charting purposes. Previously, every
    one of matty's "West End Girls" items counted as a sale. The BPI felt
    that record companies were being unfair to collectors by releasing so
    many formats (12", 10", cassette, pic-disc, diff sleeve etc) of the
    same record, knowing that some people like to collect them ALL. This
    meant some records were unfairly excluded from the charts even though
    more PEOPLE actually bought them (which is the point of charts isnt it?)
    
    Dave 
    
    Dave

I agree that Cassingles do have a lot working against them as mentioned in
previous notes.  All of the media have drawbacks & all have advantages.  It
depends on what your priorities are. 

Assuming that you do want to buy the single in some form or another, then the
cassingle's main advantage is that it can go walkabout with you & your 
walkman.  Even then you have to carry lots of them or listen to the same one
over and over (right Matty?:-).

Basically, thumbs down to all of the media as far as I am concerned.  No doubt 
the market will migrate to CD single & Cassingle, much faster if the price of
CD singles is dropped.  Considering how the single market works, this would 
probably make very good business sense.

-Brian_who_has_about_10_singles_but_who'd_buy_lots_of_CD_singles_if_cheaper.

Cassingles		Vinyl Single		CD Single
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cheap			Cheap			Expensive
Portable (Walkman)	Not portable		Not portable (without Diskman)
No Random Access	RA			RA
Reasonably durable	Not durable		Durable
Poor sound quality	Good sound quality	Excellant sound quality
Hardware cheap		Hardware not cheap	Hardware expensive

Do you agree?

    
    If I like a track that is currently in the chart, I like to have a
    extended / different version to listen to thus I only buy 12" singles.
    Because of this to me CD singles are no more expensive than norm (aprox
    #3.49). I then go home record the track(s) to quality tape and have
    two quality sounding formats, one for mobile use, other for home.
    
    When they eventually drop the 7" single they will be basically fourcing
    people (who just want the basic track) to buy poor sound quality 
    casingles or fork out the extra for quality 12"/CD singles with unwanted
    tracks. From this I can only assume that the record companys will start
    to produce CD singles with just the basic track, B side, at a similar
    price to the casingle along side the standard CD single.
    
    Anyway, if all you want is poor sound quality single tracks on tape
    record the top 40 on a sunday!
    
           
    ..Craig

aren't more albums sold on cassette than on vinyl anyway?


...art

    Re .2  - The bit about sound quality. 
    
    Vinyl - Excelent Sound Quality    C.D - Above average quality
    
    Cassette - Should be fluished down the toilet with all the other
    hiss.
    
    Re the bit about cost.
    
    Vinyl - From V Cheap (and poor) to V. Expennsive (and the Best)
    C.D   - From expensive upwards (Not as good as mid price T.table)
    Cassette - 90 % sales of cassette machines are walkmans under #10.
    
    Juju
    xxxx
    

    Have to agree that Analogue LP is by definition better than Digital CD.
    But not everyone has a pink triangle. 

    What's all this about tapes being poor sound quality?  Is this
    really the general opinion?  I've never really had any problem with
    them myself.  Vinyl wears down in quality much quicker than tapes.

    As for Cassette singles, my main problem with them is that a tape
    is quite a large and bulky format to store 2-4 songs on.  I'm also
    more loathed to part with tapes than I am with vinyl.
    
    CD is really the better format, apart from the cost of the buggers,
    but I'm sure the vinyl stalwarts and neo-luddites out there will
    disagree. 
    
    Lee

    I think the points been stretched a bit far already. However .. I do
    find that cassettes deteriorate in quality, whether they are played or
    not. Which is not true of vinyl LPs provided they are kept clean.
    
    Dave

    Vinyl will deteriorate rapidly if played on your average home stack
    - try playing your record collection from when you had your stack
    on your Linn Turntable with Troika cartridge, a friend of mine tried
    and had to replace most of his records to make the mega dosh he
    paid worth it. Cassettes have a tendancy to print through, altough
    this is only audible on mega quality decks. If dolby C has been
    used though print through and tape streching becomes evident more
    quickly as the sound takes on a muffled quality.
    
    I have all three formats, never use the cassette deck, never use
    the turntable, always use the CD. Why? well most of my stuff is
    on CD so that it'll go in the car, despite the possible differnce
    between vinyl and digital none has sucessfully put a turntable in
    a car!
    
    Nigel

    I buy cassette when I have my Walkman with me and want to listen
    immediatly.  I buy 7" from the bargain buckets only, ie 49p.  My
    favourite format is the 12".  I can play what I like when I like.  I
    don't have to FF or REW to get where I want, I don't have to rewind
    before I put away.  I don't like the tape cases getting scratched, but
    I do like the large covers that 12"s have.  What the hell are DJ gunna
    do?  You can't mix tapes!  Tapes also take up too much space. ie. 100
    tapes = about 400 7"s.
    
    I the states Sineads `Nothing Compares...' made No1, but is very
    difficult to find on vinyl.  I know a DJ over there who has nothing to
    spin.
    
    
    matty

   IMO, cassette singles are brilliant.  When I buy a "song" I like
   to listen to it immediately and continuously for about a week.
   Buying a casette single means I can stick it straight in my
   walkman or car radio.  Buying a record or CD means I also have
   to buy a blank cassette tape and record it, which you're not 
   really supposed to do.

   Cassette singles are only about 20p more expensive than 7" singles.

   Goldy

    -1>Buying a record or CD means I also have
    -1>to buy a blank cassette tape and record it, which you're not 
    -1>really supposed to do.
    
    FYI
    There is nothing illegal about recording previously bought
    CD/TAPE/VINYL mediums, providing they are only for your own private use. 
    
    ..Craig

   Maybe not, but considering that fact that when I listen to tapes
   in my car, I have the windows open and the volume turned up...!!!!!!

    I hate being in a traffic queue next to these people. What about
    you ? They always seem to drive Ford Capri's or Xr 3 i's, and are
    listening to Transvision Vamp or somthing....
    
    Juju
    xxxx
    

   Well, I drive an A-Reg Escort 1.3GL.

    So does my wife. Bet yours is in Terracotta, too

    
    I believe its illegal in the US, but it is legal in the UK.
 
    -Methinks   

    Computer tapes, soft ware ect certainly could be copied for home
    use, but I do think that it is illegal to do the same with music.
    
    JUju
    xxxx