The Cassette Store Called ...

Riding the coat tails of Record Store Day (20-April-2013), it was just announced that 07-September-2013 will be the first International Cassette Store Day. I swore this had to be a parody when I first got the Tweet, but the organizers seem sincere and committed (if misguided).

It should be self-evident that the idea of Cassette Store Day makes no sense. But, if you need convincing, let me count the ways it fails.

First, there is the name. We all know what a record store is. Record Store Day was created to celebrate them — the neighborhood bricks-and-mortar independent music retailer staffed by passionate, knowledgeable music lovers — not any particular music delivery format. The Cassette Store Day promotion aspires to be equally evocative, but fails for the same reason the “The Jerk Store called, they want you back” failed as The Comeback in the eponymous Seinfeld episode: no one knows what a Cassette Store is, or if any exist.

Consider raison d’etre. Why did tapes thrive for a time? The advantage of the cassette over any other competing physical format was portability. That advantage was obliterated by the audio CD, and then they were both rendered obsolete by weightless digital. The original tape-playing Sony Walkman is long gone, and tape decks and CD players have been displaced in new vehicles by iPod/USB ports. What is the market for new cassettes?

As a result, let’s look at market impact. Physical album sales declined 13% between 2011 and 2012. (Source: Neilsen Soundscan). While estimated cassette sales rose in the same time period, they still accounted for only 0.1% (one tenth of one percent) of the market share for album sales in 2012. Cassette sales peaked in 1988 (25 years ago!) and bottomed out in 2005. A Cassette Day sales bump would produce an insignificant change in a dying sector.

Finally, there is sleeping with the enemy. The organizers of Cassette Store Day have elected to include online retailers in the promotion. Record Store Day was created at least in part as a protest against online music retailers threatening the livelihood of bricks-and-mortar record stores. If there are bricks-and-mortar cassette stores, aren’t they afraid online cassette stores will kill their already-unsustainable business?

Let’s celebrate September 7th as the anniversary of the first Miss America pageant (1921) or the opening of the Pro Football Hall of Fame (1963). No need to lionize obsolete physical media.

Related: Unsustainable business models, convenience vs. fidelity, technology arcs.

[About the author. Consumer Electronics and Software industry veteran Tom Dennehy publishes the online journal Surface to Air, triangulating among ideas and events at the intersection of the physical music past and the weightless digital future. Follow him on Twitter @InAurem_a2d.]