Talk:Cassette single

Quality issues

I remember reading somewhere that one reason why cassette singles flopped is that they were generally produced on inferior tape. But I don't want to add this to the article without a citation. Does anyone remember this controversy? 23skidoo 17:08, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

Some no doubtably were, but the process of duplicating cassettes involves running the blank cassettes through a duping machine at high speed, and this reduces the audio track's highest frequencies, so audio quality suffers even if good tape is used in the cassette.

The alternative is to run the duping machines at normal speed which would mean that each 30 minute cassette took thirty minutes to duplicate. This was the method used by some high quality audiophile companies that released audio cassettes, although they were considerably more expensive than the normal ones. IIRC, one such company was Mobile Fidelity, who, rather surprisingly, started off by selling high quality recordings of steam locomotives, hence the name. They later sold high quality version of a number of famous band releases, AIIR, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, although that may have only been on vinyl, which they also released on. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.112.68.219 (talk) 12:03, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Popularity

In the UK, cassingles seemed to be more common during the 1990s than the 1980s; I don't recall seeing any during the 1980s (not that I bought that many singles then, but I'd have thought they were pretty cool if I had seen them).

Perhaps this was because people had stopped widely using record decks by the 1990s; and it's notable that cassingles were much cheaper than CD equivalents (I bought several on the basis of price; £3.99 was quite average for a CD single after the first week of release, cassettes were typically £1.99 or £2.49).

At any rate, the "popular during the 1980s" comment isn't really accurate. Any thoughts?

Fourohfour 11:37, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

• Actually I'd contest that the cassingle -- in North American markets -- were never popular at all, and I don't think they were ever even counted in sales charts like Billboard. Of course the circumstance may have been different in other parts of the world, but all I know if cassingles were only available for a short time in North America until CD singles came along, and then cassingles disappeared almost overnight. 23skidoo 14:58, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

• Why would Billboard not count them as sales? That claim seems preposterous to me. Also, CD singles were available as early as 1983 (c.f. U2's "New Year's Day" 1982-copyrighted CD single, released Jan. '83, which I own.) Thus cassingles were still popular more than 10 years after CD singles were introduced. This hardly qualifies as an "overnight" extinction. Chris77xyz 18:13, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

• Agree with Chris77xyz re 23Skidoos's unsubstantiated claims. Cassette Singles were HUGELY popular in North America and I personally remember record stores being full of them during the early 1990s. Perhaps this wasn't the case in his 'neck of the woods'? ~Encise —Preceding unsigned comment added by 164.53.218.20 (talk) 01:42, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

cassette singles popularity

I used to work in a UK record shop in the 80`s & 90`s the "first cassette single was by Bow wow wow in 1980, in the early 80`s this format was more a novelty, however cassette singles did sell very well however over time from the late 80`s but the type of music being sold on this format would define their poularity, Rock & Indie music sold very few quantitys however pop & childrens music could outsell other formats on a release.

U2,Queen, no, Mr Blobby, Take That yes I would also note that Snap-Rhythm is a dancer was one of our biggest cassette single sellers in the 90`s outselling the 7"

First Cassette Single

I believe the Bow Wow Wow cassette that is being referred to is called "Your Cassette Pet". Even though it was produced in a cardboard sleeve similar to the cassette singles, it was actually more of an EP containing eight songs.

I had always heard that The Go-Go's had the first cassette single with "Vacation" from 1982 as would this article suggest: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEED91531F931A3575AC0A961948260&sec=&pagewanted=all

Bow Wow Wow's cassette single "C30, C60, C90, Go" was from around 1980 IIRC, so pre-dates the Go-Gos by some time. The "C30, C60, C90, Go" cassette had a blank other side so that buyers could use that side to record their own B-side. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.112.68.219 (talk) 11:51, 21 May 2011 (UTC)

Vinyl more expensive to produce?

"They were popular during the 1990s, as record companies promoted their use to the detriment of the more expensive to produce vinyl singles."

Were pre-recorded cassettes really cheaper to produce than vinyl records? Does anyone have a source for this?

I would have thought vinyl was cheaper to produce in any sort of quantity, given that it's just a solid lump of plastic with the music moulded into its surface. Cassettes have multiple moving parts, and of course the music has to be recorded onto them before they can be sold. 217.155.20.163 23:05, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Whilst it may be down to economies of scale, I agree that this statement is somewhat dubious and have tagged it as "citation needed". Fourohfour 14:47, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Cassettes are much cheaper to produce than vinyl singles. They are smaller/lighter in weight, thus requiring less material to produce and less paper/ink to make their sleeves. They have better heat-resistance (vinyl warps easily in transit in warm months), thus cutting down on profit losses due to returns. And since the early '90s, there are very few vinyl pressing plants still around. Then again, there are few of either plant around in the '00s. And CDs have been cheaper to manufacture than either of those for years now. Chris77xyz 18:13, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

I can understand some of those arguments, but surely these factors would be outweighed by the fact that the manufacturing/assembly/recording process is much more complex. A cassette has something like 20 separate plastic and metal parts that have to be manufactured and assembled together, whereas a vinyl single is just a solid piece of moulded plastic.

Also, I'd have thought a temperature high enough to warp vinyl wouldn't exactly be kind to cassettes either. 217.155.20.163 18:55, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

they can just buy the blank cassettes, they don't have to make them —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.193.194.181 (talk) 02:24, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

In the late 1970s the high speed duplication machine was invented. This could produce hundreds of cassettes an hour. Before that, they had to be copied from a master tape by hand, usually in the far east. 45s were much more expensive because of the cost of cutting a master disc from a brass blank.101.178.163.92 (talk) 01:12, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

History of the music cassette

(Note: Dispute centres around this version (Encise's version) and this version (Fourohfour's version). Fourohfour 17:36, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

User 203.57.241.67 00:11, 7 February 2007 (UTC)fourohfour seems to think that the history of music cassettes does not appear "relevant" to the article on cassette singles. A brief introduction of the format type is relevant to the introduction of the cassingle and frames the cassette single by explaining the history of the very format. The article in its prior state -sans the music cassette history- was lacking.

Where exactly do you draw the conclusion that I didn't consider the material "relevant"? Your quotes imply that I used this word, when I didn't even imply it.

This is effectively a sub-article, whose parents are Compact Cassette and Single (music). It covers material that is too specialised, detailed and/or inappropriate for the parents, but that does not mean that we have to duplicate all relevant content here- that's what links are for.

The subject of this article, as indicated by its title is the "cassette single", not the cassette as a whole.

Cut-and-paste duplication of vast swathes of material (which is what this dispute is centered around) is very bad style, both from a reader's and from an editor's point of view. Whilst minor overlap is desirable in a set of good articles, it should serve as a summary of (and pointer to) relevant facts in the main article.

Anyway, I've said enough about this, and don't intend getting into a revert war. I'll bring up the matter at Compact Cassette so that we can get opinion from a neutral-but-interested cross-section of editors. Fourohfour 17:33, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

I agree that there is no need to duplicate information that is already easily available elswhere. Perhaps a "see also" reference to the compact cassette article would suffice? Jud 18:27, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

That's probably okay; although it's already been linked at the start of the article, I don't mind it... Fourohfour 21:01, 8 February 2007 (UTC)

• Have re-considered and agree with your point regarding Cut-and-paste awatches of material. I also want to avert an edit-war and accept your valid points regarding links and minor overlap. The article does require expansion however, so I'll attempt to script a valid paragraph or two on the format itself - I'll post here (for your review) prior to editing the article. Thanks and regards for both of your input Encise 21:57, 8 February 2007 (UTC)Encise

Length

The physical cassetes were 60, 40 minutes or less? --Alex:Dan 14:24, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Cassingles were usually just long enough to record the A & B sides of the single on both sides of the cassette. So, usually less than 10 minutes per side. Sometimes more than two songs were put on a cassingle, though. --ozzmosis 18:26, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Tori Amos cassette photo in article

I like Tori and all, but this release is not representative of a true cassingle. The type shown comes in a hard plastic shellcase, and is what's usually referred to as a Maxi cassette single. Cassingles came in just paper wrappings to keep costs down. It's just kind of hard for me to believe how this photo was used instead of the thousands of different "real" cassingles that were released. Chris77xyz 18:13, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

A good point, and it should be a picture of the single and its wrapper, not just a scan of the insert, so we can demonstrate what the cardboard wrapper looked like. ProhibitOnions ^(T) 20:06, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

That Tori Amos inlay is from a standard cassette single (with just two tracks), not an EP or "maxi" single.

The image description does state that it is a UK release - I don't know about other countries, but here in the UK, cassette singles were released in either a standard plastic cassette case (with inlay), or a printed wrap-around sleeve as described by Chris77xyz above.

If anything, the plastic case was more common here; the paper sleeve was more often seen on "freebie" cassettes given away with magazines and the like. Ideally, both types of packaging should be shown. 217.155.20.163 19:09, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Sales vs vinyl records

"...cassette singles never eclipsed gramophone records to the same extent as cassette albums had done." I dispute this. I would suggest that cassingles outsold vinyl 7" and 12" singles in the mid to late 1990s. Encise 03:37, 21 June 2007 (UTC)Encise

First single

The article states in the opening that The Go-Gos "Vacation" was the first cassette single and then goes on to say that the first in the UK was 1978. "Vacation" was 1982 - or is this all meant to be from a US perspective? If it is, I don't see why it should be.--Tuzapicabit (talk) 14:12, 27 November 2008 (UTC)

File:Wintertape.jpg Nominated for speedy Deletion

An image used in this article, File:Wintertape.jpg, has been nominated for speedy deletion for the following reason: Wikipedia files with no non-free use rationale as of 20 June 2012 What should I do? Don't panic; you should have time to contest the deletion (although please review deletion guidelines before doing so). The best way to contest this form of deletion is by posting on the image talk page. If the image is non-free then you may need to provide a fair use rationale If the image isn't freely licensed and there is no fair use rationale, then it cannot be uploaded or used. If the image has already been deleted you may want to try Deletion Review To take part in any discussion, or to review a more detailed deletion rationale please visit the relevant image page (File:Wintertape.jpg) This is Bot placed notification, another user has nominated/tagged the image --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 23:28, 20 June 2012 (UTC)