Or: Cassette Project #1 (Another Reprise)
As I wrote in the previous blog posting, Austin Chapman starts with a clean slate.
He has the benefit of exploring new sounds and new music through his new ears based on its reputation and the recommendation of others. Whichever sonic avenues he chooses to explore will be off-ramps from those original tracks he’s been recommended. He will be listening to a lot of good stuff, no doubt, but he will be taking a few wrong turns along the way, too.
Austin doesn’t know this yet. His taste has yet to be defined.
Not so with me: My taste is settled, my preferences defined. I know what I like, and like most people I’ve long learnt to predict the audio contents based on visual cues such as packaging and text. Not only is this skill useful, I’ve honed it even further by forcing myself to listen to more music over the last 15 months than you can shake a baton at.
I’ve been exploring new music by listening to old recordings. Gratis.
There was no need for services like last.fm, drip.fm or Spotify to “suggest” what I might like (or might like to buy) based on past listening or purchasing habits. I didn’t have to be online to do so, nor do I need to waste time managing a bunch of files or synchronising devices so I can listen to compressed audio through pathetic little ear buds or tinny speakers via an overpriced phone while sitting in a noisy train all the while worrying about dropped connections, my precious data plan or when I last charged my iTablet.
But not me. I’m smarter than that, I worked it out. I went retro and asked for tapes.
