2011 – The Year US Automakers Kill Tape Players
Well, it happened. In 2011, there will be no automakers selling cars with tape players. It's hard to imagine that it took this long to happen – for me anyways. But it did.
Given how progressive the Hypebot community is, it's easy to overlook the prevalence of tape culture.
The Times suggests that "millions" of drivers are still attached their tape libraries.
Welcome to the digital, err, analog age.
"In the 21st century millions of drivers are still attached to their tape libraries — the homemade party mix tapes as well as store-bought titles — that provided durable, portable alternatives to vinyl records and eight-tracks, neither of which were practical to record at home.
That nostalgic affection for tape holds no sway with automakers, though.
For the 2011 model year, no manufacturer selling cars in the United States offers a tape player either as standard equipment or as an option on a new vehicle." (Read on.)
Over here in Germany, car manufacturers stopped offering tape players a few years ago. Even before that, almost everybody had switched to CD-R for making compilations. Only hardcore mixtapers with more of an affection for the canvas, the tape itself, than the music, are still sticking to cassettes. So the automakers are only reacting.
I’ve got some old tapes with some great playlists on them to give away if you want some.
Yet, on another note, please bear in mind that CD-Rs don’t store data for as long as most people believe, especially if burnt at high speeds. An old tape would produce a somewhat muffled sound whereas an old CD-R would produce no sound at all.
Not just tape players, very hard to find a car w/ CD changers too. Back to just one CD/DVD capacity and a hard drive… real great for safety fiddling through file folders on a screen while driving!
We’ve some ways to go before this works well. I can’t stand the idea that my Kindle book doesn’t belong to me in the way a real book does, and I refuse to buy any music that I can’t move around as I wish. I succumbed to buying some apps for an iPad I borrowed but Steve Jobs will rue the day if I can’t easily move them onto another iDevice if I ever end up getting one.