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What Are Some Good Willie Nelson Cassette Tapes to Buy?

The other night on CBS they aired the 90th birthday of Willie Nelson tribute concert at Hollywood Bowl. It was a great show. The concert reminded me how much I heard Willie’s music growing up.

It was inspiring and when music does that, it makes me want to post something to this blog.

Willie’s 90th was so good that I, of course, started thinking about what kind of Willie Nelson cassette tapes I could buy. Here is a list of good Willie Nelson tapes for me and you to buy:

• Willie Nelson’s Greatest Hits. anywhere from $4.00 and up on Amazon. If you’re not going to go all in and buy his whole collection, Nelson’s Greatest Hits is the tape to have.
• Stardust. Starting at $7 on Amazon, one of his boldest albums as he recorded popish songs at the height of rebel country days, and managed to one of his greatest.
• Red Headed Stranger. This one is harder to get, notice the $45ish price tag.
• Shotgun Willie. Also tougher to get, could only find it on eBay.
• Phases and Stages. Another rare one I only found on eBay.
• Waylon & Willie. Just a couple of outlaws is all.

That ought to get you on the right road. Other places to buy a Willie cassette:

• Tape lots on eBay – At the moment there is this lot of five tapes, and this Willie lot too with nine tapes in it (pictured above), looks damn ass tempting. You’ll quickly get your tape collection Nelson’d with a lot.
• TapeHead City. He always has something, changes from time to time.

The man has 74 (and counting) studio albums. That means there is a Texas-sized mountain of cassettes out there to find. Good luck hunting.

Check out some video from Willie’s Birthday party at the Hollywood Bowl for inspiration:

And we are not done yet. Even in his 90s, Willie Nelson is still touring. You can look on his site for a schedule. You can also look for tickets through the links below. Even if the show you want to go to is sold out, those sites still might have tickets.

• Willie Nelson tickets on TickPick.
• Willie Nelson tickets on TicketNetwork.
• Willie tickets via Ticket Liquidator.

While we are on the subject of Willie Nelson, my affiliate partner (Backstage Merch) has some nice Willie Nelson shirts.

Okay, that is enough Willie today. You might also be into a rare Dolly Parton tape.

-Mike The Tape Player

Getting back into tapes recently has opened me up to the blank cassette tape market. So I thought I would get a quick post up to help guide you on the easiest places to buy blank cassette tapes.

There are more blank cassette tapes out there than you would think. And it’s glorious. The freedom of being able to record something onto physical media for dirt cheap has always been a major selling point of tapes in general.

If you are looking for places to buy blank cassette tapes, my starter recommendations are:

• Look for some at your local thrift shop. You might be surprised at the number of cassette tapes (blank and old albums) you find. Not a crap ton, mind you, but some.
• Cassette tapes on Amazon (I have filtered options further down the post): I have already bought some blank ones that I want to put my music on. I haven’t done anything yet because I suck I music, but I still like having them. The FYDELITY tapes (like these glorious red ones that are pictured above) are especially nice to hold and satisfying to look at.
• Blank cassettes on eBay. Be careful, you might be like me and go nuts buying blanks on there.

Speaking of nuts. I am now fascinated with this blank tape in particular:

That is the Tascam Master 424 High Bias Type II Cobalt Studio Cassette Tape. Doesn’t it look everything!? I don’t know that I have something serious enough to put on it, but I want one just the same.

BTW, just something to think about, you don’t always have to put music on tapes. I totally want to put my podcast episodes on cassette too – again, another thing I have been wanting to do forever but have not done yet.

You name it: Blank cassette tapes wholesale, blank cassette tapes cheap, blank cassette tape bulk… I WANT IT ALL!!

Highest Rated Blank Cassette Tapes (on Amazon)

If you’re just looking for the simplicity of buying blank tapes on Amazon, these are the top-rated ones I found – these are ones that folks (like you) that check out this post, end up buying:

• Reshow – Low Noise High Output 90 Minute.
• Maxell XLII IEC TYPE II 90 Minute.
• RTM C60 – Type 60 Minute Music Recording Cassette.
• Maxell – 108527 Low Noise 90 Minute.
• FYDELITY – Gold Chrome Tape 90 Minute 10-Pack.

I mean, COME ON with the RTM C60, love that freaking little case:

Blank Cassette Video Section

I found a couple of blank cassette tape videos that might help you out:

Don’t forget to pick up some clear cassette tape cases to replace all your broken at cracked ones.

As you might have guessed, so far eBay and Amazon are the easiest places to buy a blank cassette tape. I will keep looking for more places and check back.

For more about cassette tape collecting, check out my beginner guide.

-Mikey The Tape Player

PS: Some links may go to affiliates of The Tape Player – I may get a tiny percentage if you end up buying something.

“In Times New Roman” the new Queens OTSA is out. I have been pretty excited about. Although it’s getting lukewarm reviews:

Even if it’s room temp, I still want it. They are simply an excellent ass rock band and I refuse to not have a copy of it.

Really the only question is should I buy it on cassette or tape or CD or vinyl?

Ideally, all three. But I don’t have even enough cash to buy one format (if I am being honest), let alone three. So, I choose cassette (after all, this isn’t the CD Player blog).

But wait… [after much searching of the Internet] it appears a cassette of “In Times New Roman” was not released. They simply didn’t make one. This is weird to me. This is the kind of band that you would think would be all about tapes – I am not sure why I think that, but I feel I am right.

I guess a CD, or record will have to do. They can be found on Amazon (the Green and Silver – they might be gone now) or through QOTSA’s Bandcamp page – only the CD and standard record is still available.

Bummer, man.

Hi. It’s Mikey The Tape Player here – playing tapes because I don’t have to.

Today, we are going to figure out how to start collecting cassette tapes. Where are the best places to begin learning?

I have been looking around the Internet, and these are the best blogs, websites, newsletters, and boards I have found for tape collecting, tape players, and cassette nerds. Hopefully, there are some you don’t know about yet, and you’ll be all “Oh rad! I didn’t know about this one!”

• Tabs Out. A hilarious podcast that plays tapes of mostly experimental music from dedicated tape labels. Also, reviews submitted tapes.
• Tapehead City. An online tape store, the ultimate spot for buying new releases and hard-to-find tapes.
• Cassette Chronicles. This is a series on a website that looks back at some old albums and the tapes released around them.
• Cassette Gods. It’s an old cassette review blog that was thought to be retired, but they did just put up a post wondering if anyone is still around. We are.
• Cassette Comeback. A great website for buying sealed blank tapes and tape players.
• The Cassette Place. A website for buying old tapes.
• National Audio Company. A manufacturer and packager of actual tapes.
• Retospekt. The place to buy portable tape players.
• Cassette. A good community on Reddit.
• Cassette Culture. Another good Reddit community.
• Cassette tapes on eBay. I mean, we have all bought tapes on eBay, yeah?
• 3rd Floor Tapes. A great indie site for buying tapes.
• Tape Lab. All kinds of music and tape stuff going on there.

I will come back to this post and add blogs or sites when I find another one worthy.

Links to Cassette Tape History and Important Collector Posts

I have been trying to learn about what I have been missing out on with tape collecting and the history of it. There has always been a huge nostalgia element for me, but I have left it there, previously, not letting myself go down the tape nerd rabbit hole.

But now I am ready to listen deeper and find out more. So, here are some posts that I found to help me and I hope they will help you.

• The Evolution of Cassette Culture – posted on Medium by Jacob Waite.
• Every couple of years, there seems to be an article about the resurgence of cassette tapes.  Here is a recent one.
• Another tape comeback story, this one talks about how blank Maxwell tapes are still in demand.
• From Wired, how to start a cassette collection in the 21st Century.

Key Videos For Tape Collecting

There is a pretty decent amount of cassette tape-related YouTube channels and videos. I am just showing a couple of basic starting out relevant videos – I will do another post with some of the best people to follow.

A positive take on why cassettes right now:

And a more negative? stance:

Okay, hope this helps you start or solidify your tape collecting. If there are any you think I missed, please feel free to comment on this post with the website I missed.

Soon I will be digging into the eBay and Amazon world of collecting tapes and I will rewind and playback my experiences.

For my related reading, check my blank cassette tape post.

For more related reading, my list of music blogs (best).