La Cassettería: the new vintage temple for music lovers in Madrid
If something has been more than proven in recent years, it is that nostalgia sells. And it sells a lot! Fashion brands, movies, series, video games or artists have jumped on the bandwagon to evoke better times in which our main concern was go by bike, spend the summer in town, go on vacation with your parents in the FIAT or Renault on duty or meet your friends in the neighborhood after school.
Looking back, it is more than likely that the music tape of our favorite artists was present at any of those times. Then came the CDs and in the years that followed, the digital platforms decided that the music was going to be heard in our mp3, computer, tablet or –of course– on our mobile phone.
But let's not get confused the little brothers of vinyl records did not go on to another life, but waited latently among small groups of music lovers for the shadow of the mainstream to do its thing again.
Thanks to shows like Stranger Things or For thirteen reasons and artists like Jennifer Lopez, Selena Gomez or Kylie Minogue , the tapes have returned to the fore and more and more users are interested in this type of format. **If it happened with the vinyl, why not do the same with the cassette? **
It's just what you thought Luis Gonzalez Commander when it opened last September at number 5 Travesía de Conde Duque –and where an old laundry used to be located– the only cassette store and factory in all of Spain. A crazy dream that comes at the right time. Come and see.
La Cassettería: a cassette shop and factory like in the 80s
THE ORIGIN OF THE CASSETTE
Luis González's passion for music began in 2008 as an amateur. Over the years, what was initially presented as a hobby ended up triggering his profession and way of life.
It was in 2016 when he jumped into the pool and created his own record label called Ciudad Oasis where they only release on vinyl and cassette. The Cassetteria emerges as an extension of this.
“It's a continuation of what the record label is. We didn't want a simple office, but a nice meeting point where people could come in, talk and discover this world. So by the way it was a way to make the facilities profitable. It was then that the opportunity arose to set up a vinyl or cassette factory. In the end we decided to venture for the second” , tells Traveler.es its founder Luis González.
The motives? The high cost of vinyl and the absence of factories specializing in cassettes in our country were the trigger for this decision that is now a reality.
The most difficult thing was to find the machines to record in this type of format and it was not until the end of 2019 when they found a person who could sell them to them. Then the pandemic came and with it months of delays in opening.
Until the end in September 2020 with a global economic and health crisis on top, they decided to open this fabulous space that invites us to continue dreaming. "Setting up a business like this in the midst of a pandemic is quite a risk, but the experience is being positive," says Luis González.
La Cassettería is ready to awaken our nostalgia for the decades of the 80s and 90s
THEY DON'T JUST TALK ABOUT MUSIC, THEY SELL EXPERIENCES
At La Cassettería all customers are welcome. There are the music groups that release their work under the Ciudad Oasis record label, the artists who want to publish original music or the private client who has a devotion to analog and wants recover the magic that such an authentic method of reproduction offers you.
So if you wish, you can go to this Conde Duque store to witness all this manufacturing work and –of course– buy from the completely empty belts, or carry out the entire recording process with the choice of the type of tape, label, stamping, booklet... the possibilities are endless!
“The first cassette we made here had nothing recorded on it, it was an empty tape because the label wanted something very cheap to present their song to the public. We gave him the cassette with a label where he put the Spotify code that he could scan with his mobile and listen to it. It was all a marketing action”, comments Luis González.
La Cassettería is a continuation of the Ciudad Oasis record label
To this came many more stories that the founder remembers fondly. Since people who record songs for their partners as a declaration of love, friends who buy cassettes accompanied by walkmans or radio cassettes as a birthday present to the most nostalgic, even artists who acquire them as a simple decorative element for some of their works and even people with vision problems who are reluctant to abandon analog and request the recording of agendas or audio guides for their daily tasks.
“We always say that we are an artisan cassette factory. Everything is done in a very traditional and handmade way. And we value all that process. We don't just sell music, we sell an entire experience", they say from The Cassettery.
A temple of nostalgia in Conde Duque
THE BEST TIME IS NOW
If the news of 2005 regarding the life of the tapes was most hopeless, the forecasts of the last years of the industry arrive in the opposite direction.
“In the first six months of 2020, 65,000 cassettes were bought in the UK, an increase of 103% compared to the same period last year. In addition, the figures are expected to eclipse the 80,000 figure in 2019 and are on track to exceed 100,000 for the first time since 2003,” confirmed a study.
It is not about competing with streaming platforms but rather understanding it as a more sensory activity. “When you have a cassette and it's over you have to get up and turn it over. You listen to the entire album or the songs, on Spotify that doesn't happen. It is the experience of listening to music and not having it in the background. They are the feelings of living calmly, something that is being lost with the digital world. Each thing has its moment and its space”, suggests Luis González.
"We don't just sell music, we sell an entire experience"
EVERYTHING THAT IS TO COME
Despite the pandemic, 2021 is presented with the best of intentions. Among its short-term plans we can find:
-Launch reissues with some well-known artist, whose negotiations are already on the table.
-Betting on sustainability and make the tapes from recycled plastics.
-Enter as a new line of business in the world of video games. Did you know that the first ones were made on cassette and you had to rewind them in order to continue playing?
-Make a la carte tapes. “Find a way to be able to remunerate the artist so that his song recorded on a cassette is for them, the label or the publisher. Negotiate with all of them to reach a commercial agreement”, he continues.
-Develop your own players without having to buy them second-hand or from distributors.
In this hectic world we live in, where multitasking is the order of the day. What could be more pleasurable than just listening to music for the sake of it? Disconnect to connect, we don't need more.
At La Cassetteria, nostalgia and the physical format rule