The current trend of diving into the past to deal with the future shows no signs of stopping any time soon, and one unlikely format is slowly but surely making a significant comeback: the cassette tape.
For Generation Z and even a portion of Gen Y, their first destination was not the local record store; it was the internet or streaming apps to sift through avalanches of digital music and algorithm recommendations. Tangible media, like vinyl, cassettes, and maybe eventually CDs, are not only curious objects but also a means of escape from the digitized and commoditized world of music.
We’ve seen the vinyl format make a comeback and a significant paradigm shift in how people consume music. So, it seems logical that these younger generations would eventually migrate to other formats like cassettes. The cassette has some quirky features, and just like vinyl, it requires you to flip it and more actively engage with it.
Cassette Culture
The cassette tape was the most portable format of its time and allowed people to record mixtapes and take their music with them with devices like the Sony Walkman and in-car stereos. The art of the mixtape was the love letter of the time; if you liked someone or wanted to up your music cred, you made a highly customized mixtape.
This customization meant hand-drawn art, cool mix titles, little heart icons, and even love notes to the receiver of these one-of-a-kind gems. Making a mixtape was a long process, not dragging and dropping into a playlist. You had to find the equipment, find the source material, and record the songs individually onto the blank tape. You had to want to do it.
WeAreRewind understands cassette culture, and with no great choices for portable cassette players on the market aside from aging vintage machines, they set out to build a new one for today’s tape enthusiasts.
Based in France, the company was born out of a passion for music and a fond nostalgia for the cassette tape. For many of us who grew up in the 90s, this was the most affordable, customizable, and compact format, and it was awesome. So why not bring this awesome experience back?
WeAreRewind Cassette Player
The WeAreRewind Cassette player comes in three colors (orange, grey, and blue) with a metallic matte finish. Along with all the standard old-school features like fast forward/rewind buttons and headphone jack, they’ve updated their player with some excellent modern functionality. They have ditched traditional batteries for a rechargeable battery with 12 hours of juice and added a 5.1 Bluetooth-out connection for wireless listening. You also have an audio input to record mixtapes from external sources on a blank tape. The player is slightly larger than old-school versions and crafted with the high-quality materials of the original Walkman. There is no plastic in sight, just cool-to-the-touch aluminum, giving the device a nice weight and sturdy feel.
Making a device like a cassette player is a lot harder than it sounds due to the fact that there are no factories left that make high-quality mechanisms. So WeAreRewind set out to find some engineers to design a new mechanism that would stand up to the best of them of the time. So it’s safe to say that this is the best portable cassette player on the market, as most new devices you see on Amazon have a subpar playback mechanism and low-quality materials.
Features:
- Fast Forward/Rewind buttons
- Headphone output jack
- Volume control
- Audio input for recording mixtapes
- 12 hour onboard rechargeable battery
- Updated and improved tape mechanism
- Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity for wireless playback on headphones and speakers
Pro Tip – If you want the best quality sound, we suggest using wired headphones vs. Bluetooth connection. For some, this won’t make much of a difference, but for those of you with more sensitive ears, wired is the way.
Finding Cassettes:
We’ve begun digging for old mixtapes and albums on cassette online, at record shows, and in indie record stores. You are also only a few Google searches away from finding classic underground DJ mixtapes from the 90s and early 00s. Searching for tapes online will take you down some excellent rabbit holes, so buckle up and get out your credit card. There are even dedicated online shops that focus on the cassette format, like The Cassette Place.
If you are looking for newer tapes or musical offerings, there are a lot of labels re-releasing things on cassette and more recent titles coming out on the format, although these will cost you upwards of $15 a pop.
Whether you are getting them vintage or brand new, there is no denying the feeling of popping in a cassette and hitting the play button; it’s like jumping into a musical time machine.
Get the WeAreRewind Cassette Player Here for $164; they also come in bundles with a blank cassette, and in the box, you get a little pencil to start your journey on making the ultimate mixtape for that special someone.
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