How to Make Your Cassette Photos Stand Out in a Crowd

For a small blog covering a very niche subject, Tape Tardis has done well for search referral traffic. Although it does now tend to focus on text-first content, Tape Tardis began life as a photo blog, and the presence of some of its most impactive illustrations on Google Images has been one of the key factors in netting labour-free, guaranteed, daily traffic.

I’ve always believed that if you can get a new, original photo fairly high up in the Google Images results, and that photo stands out, the great public of the world will spot it and engage with it. And that should encourage Google to keep the photo visible for you – perhaps even drive it up to a higher position. Impactive images will also likely get you shares on photo-driven sites such as Pinterest, which expand your reach with further links to your main content.

In this post, I’m going to document a few of the ideas I’ve used to make my cassette photos a little different, and thus instantly visible in a crowd…

1984 Pre-Recorded Chrome Cassette: Peter Katin Plays Chopin

I haven’t posted much in the way of pre-recorded cassettery from 1984, so to make amends here’s a classic, Made in England, chromium dioxide product from that very year.

All the hallmarks of the period are there. The proud boast of “CHROME TAPE” on the front of the inlay – essential info in the early to mid eighties when hi-fi credentials lay at the forefront of audio cassette marketing. The “CHROME – FOR QUALTY” C-logo appears on the cream paper label, as does the “DOLBY SYSTEM”-accompanied Dolby logo, which prevailed on casings before the text was phased out to leave only the double-D symbol.

Eleven Forgotten and Unusual Uses For Audio Cassettes

It was best known by far as a medium for home recording music. Around the early ’70s, the audio cassette took over from the much more cumbersome reel to reel tape as the default means of capturing sound in the consumer domain. The cassette’s compactness gave it a new level of convenience, coupled with very low cost both in terms of media and recording equipment.

People used audio cassettes in a way they wouldn’t use reel to reel, and kids commonly used cassettes too. All of this helped open up a broader span of usage. Families recorded their favourite songs from the radio, bands taped their rehearsals and gave the cassettes to pub landlords in the hope of getting gigs… Most people probably recall or envisage cassettes in these roles. If you’re old enough, you may also associate cassette tapes with self-help, motivational and training courses.

But deep back in ye olde distant past, audio cassettes performed a wide range of other tasks. Some of them functional, some wild and wacky, some darkly sinister. In this post I’m revisiting some of those less well-remembered applications. And in the finest traditions of Spinal Tap, the list goes up to eleven…