Cassette prices on Bandcamp vary wildly.
Some, I feel are quite overpriced.
For those of you who either buy or produce your own cassettes, what do you think a fair price is?
I was thinking of charging £5. But others charge a lot more.
I think it kind of depends on the packaging. If it’s just a card stock sleeve then I won’t pay more than $10 USD (unless it’s by an artist I’m obsessed with). If it’s in a traditional plastic case with full color fold out insert I have no problem paying up to $15-20 USD. I remember when a punk/hxc record was $10 but metal records were $15-30. Now tapes are the price of punk LPs.
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the shops in my city that sell local artists tapes tend to price them around $10 ive found. that seems about right to me
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…8 to 12 bux max…
5 to 7 superfair…
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For an album worth of material? I know prices vary a lot depending on the type of music, fan base, country location but if I was releasing an album, the digital would cost $8-10 and the cassette would be a $3-4 premium, depending on the manufacturing cost.
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Yep that’s what I thought. It’s working out at around £3 for a decent product in the UK and I was thinking of selling for £5. But wasn’t sure if that was too cheap these days with the crazy prices some bandcamp-ers are charging.
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…since all analog/physical hardcopy carriers of all sorts of music is a niche thing, it’s also a very exclusive 'n arty thing these days…
so, treat/see/curate/price it like ur selling a piece of art…limited editions only…
the real listening/consuming/enjoying of music happens via some digital format anyways…
so, whatever the pricetag for ur tape might be, everbody whos spending money on ur content get’s the digital content with it, too, of course…
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my worthless 2 cents…
i never agreed with this. if you are selling ‘art’ on a cassette and ‘special editions’ should be special, there shouldn’t be a digital download. At least for a while, then offer it as cassettes are almost sold out.
Its special for a reason, and the people who invest in that niche format should have something that the average downloader doesn’t have. Otherwise, why would i bother with a cassette?
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I have a different take. Not at all implying yours is wrong. I am much more likely to buy physical media if it includes a digital download. Cassettes, records, Blu-ray, etc. Especially since I don’t have a tape player in my car or on the job, so I put the digital copy on my iPod for when I’m on the go.
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Just to be clear, I’m saying that I would probably sell a cassette for $11-$14. I wouldn’t consider selling a digital download for $5 and I think most people are happy to pay a small premium over digital-only to have a physical version.
The way bandcamp lists the prices of digital and physical copies next to each other makes it easy to people to think, “ I was gonna buy this album digitally but if I can get the cassette for a few more $, I’ll do that instead”
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personally i dont really get the whole allure of cassette and why people are back into it.
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In the dungeon synth scene where tapes are common, I most often see $10 or so for a well dubbed tape with nice artwork.
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That’s fair. It’s mostly nostalgia for me, but it’s also my favorite type of media to play. The spines are big enough that I can read the names on the shelf. It’s fun to take out of the case. The sounds of pushing play and stop on the deck is satisfying. I appreciate the crappy sound.
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Bit off topic, but was wondering: what do you use to play cassettes? Just old stuff or are there also good, brand new alternatives?
£10 is what I usually pay, and when I get some of my own made that seems about right, last time I looked duplication with case, sleeve and print ran about £4-6 per copy depending on where you get them and quantity produced.
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In my experience the new ones are shit, all based on the same cheapo Tanashin mechanism (they used to make better ones, but not for a few years now AFAICT) better to get a good second hand deck that has been refurbished if possible.
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Cheers. Been looking at new stuff on and off, but wasn’t really convinced by the reviews.
Once in a while I step in to a couple of local thrift stores, to see if they have anything decent. But it’s pretty hard to find cassette players at all irl. Are there any good dedicated market places in Europe, or do you just have to look for grannies on Ebay selling their 30 year old home stereo system?
Yeah ebay is probably your best bet, there are quite a few people selling serviced decks (I do mine myself) a good deck can sound fantastic, even with type1 tapes - which nearly all new tapes are anyway.
Probably best bang for buck is a 80’s or early 90’s hifi deck, good brands are Sony, Nad, Denon, Akai, Aiwa, Nakamichi, Marantz, Yamaha, or similar, you should be able to find a decent one for 80-200 depending on what you want.
Tons of info about decks here https://www.cassettedeck.org/
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ngl. its kinda crazy pricing what these older decks are going for. especially some of the “back in the day higher end brands”. and 200$ if the device is silver and not black.
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Yeah some go for a lot, but quite a few bargains out there still.
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