Underground Cassette Boom Extends To Duplicator Analog Media

Analog Media is a Montreal-based company that provides a variety of music-oriented services from CD/DVD duplication to band merch. Cassette duplication and printing are another specialty that's taken off with the growth of the cassette subculture and has become an important piece of Analog Media's business.

Analog Media aka Analogue Media Technologies aka Amtech aka Duplication.ca has clearly embraced the cassette boom. Their website emphasizes cassette services though they offer a wide range of products. They're also getting some related media attention which has confirmed the growing importance of cassettes in their product mix.

According to a recent BBC profile, their first order in 1989 was for 10 cassettes.

Yet the wheel hasn't come full circle. Then cassettes were mainstream. Now they're a surprisingly polarizing niche product, one that's doing quite well for Analog Media:

"Analogue now says that cassette recordings make up 25% of the business. That is quite a change from five years ago, when cassette tapes seemed to be going the way of the defunct 8-track cartridge."

In an earlier piece in the Montreal Gazette, cassettes are described as:

"Definitely the hottest item in the long list of products made by the company, which was founded in 1989 by Georges Frehner and his wife, Denise Gorman."

"The couple and their staff of 12 make a lot of other things at their 4,500-square-foot facility hidden off the beaten track at the end of a small strip mall on Golf Rd."

"They design and print vinyl LP record covers. They make fan merchandise for bands. There are CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays to burn or sell blank online, along with their assorted cases."

"But cassettes — that’s the big thing nowadays."

"'There used to be no demand at all for them, but now it’s just crazy,' Frehner said."

Analog's Jerry Fielden was interviewed for BBC Radio who confirmed the growing popularity of cassettes at Analog Media:

"It's getting bigger and bigger…Every day we get cassette jobs…I used to get 50 cassettes at a time. Now it's 200, 300, sometimes."

The cassette subculture, however lasting it may be, seems to be doing well for the artists and labels as well as for at least a handful of related businesses. Makes one wonder if a cassette player revival is on the way.

Facebook: Analogue Cassettes

More:

• Cassette Subculture Continues Growth in 2013 With New Labels, Releases & Media Coverage
• Why Cassette Labels Are More Important Than Many Can Understand
• Is A Cassette Tape Release In Your Future?

Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.