Vanishing audiotape supply leaves musicians reeling

[Wallerton]

Yet another thing that makes me sad:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2993475

[River Tigris]

I heard about this. Apparently, there's some company that's going to be making more tape in a few months.

Where there's a demand, there's a supply I guess.

[Funk]

Steve Albini doesn't seem to worried, and he owns a company that depends on tape: http://www.electrical.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5092&sid=ca9c0e561b8ff917e4a1b4a60faad38e

[Patrick]

According to the WSJ, Albini found a warehouse with 2000 reels and is buying 100 at a time... and not letting other people know what his source is.

Patrick

[Wallerton]

Originally posted by Funk
Steve Albini doesn't seem to worried, and he owns a company that depends on tape

From the end of the article:

"Albini estimates he now has a year's worth of tape, or about 500 reels, on hand."


Sounds like cause for concern to me.

[Funk]

Alright, Patrick and Wallerton didn't read the link to Steve Albini's actual words on the subject, so I'll post them:

"We have a lot of tape here, and there is more out there in the world, which we intend to find and acquire. This should tide us over until a newly-manufactured supply comes on-line.

I have found a research group that said there are more than 50 coating plants world-wide for magnetic tape, and one of them will surely step up and fill this void.

There will probably never be another large company to make tape, but given the market as it is now, it's a boutique business (or ought to be) anyway.

Expect tape prices to go up, but supply will re-appear sooner or later."

VS what the two Wall Street Journal reporters wrote: "Albini hit the mother lode: nearly 2,000 reels of 2-inch magnetic tape, enough to fill a small warehouse. Albini bought 100 reels and is trying to keep the supplier's name and whereabouts to himself" which contains no quotes from Mr Albini himself. Given that I've read some of his writings during his Big Black-era, then saw how those exact same writings were interpretted in Our Band Could Be Your Life, I'm going to take what he has written on his message board for his business at face value over what reporters tell me he said without using actual quotes.

[Wallerton]

Well, okay. But here are some more of Mr. Albini's words: "There will probably never be another large company to make tape, but given the market as it is now, it's a boutique business (or ought to be) anyway."

I take that to mean that analog recording will only get more expensive. It already seems prohibitively out of reach for most artists.

[tinobeat]

Originally posted by Wallerton
I take that to mean that analog recording will only get more expensive. It already seems prohibitively out of reach for most artists.

Its possible that analog will get more expensive, but in my experience the digital studios that aren't in someone's home are more expensive, as they're the "pro" SSL style studios, while there's a lot of great scrappy little analog studios.

It'll be tough, but I think it'll persevere. They stopped making analog tape recorders ages ago, yet they're still an industry standard. There's also a vibrant used tape market, and though that's definitely less than ideal, its still something. I have faith.

[dola]

Albini estimates he now has a year's worth of tape, or about 500 reels, on hand. So when Tweedy called, Albini volunteered two reels of tape — as "a professional courtesy."

those ants are always stingy bastards.