[OutVoice] Cassettes

[jddoyle1]

Sandy, 
   That's a difficult one...........as a collector and archivist I seek out cassettes by GLBT artists because very often that was the only format in which an artist released a work, so it's valuable history to me. I've done entire shows, several times, based just on songs available only on tape. And you've sent me your tapes, thank you..:) But if the material was or is now on CD, I prefer that, for sound quality and ease of use.

As a collector I've also found that it's hard to find those rare releases, dealers (such as on eBay) just do not want to bother with them. I quick trip to eBay and inputting a "search" in "music" on the word "gay" got me 1144 hits, 11 of them tapes, and none of those were particularly collectable.

But your question is what should an artist do with quantities of their old releases on tape. The only thing that comes to mind is to donate them to GLBT archives...and a catch is to check first to see if even they would want them. They may not have any capability for visitors to play tapes. This is almost always the situation I've found when visiting archives around the country, if they even have a music collection. And as they would not likely want "quantities" of a donated item, the option of you tracking down the whole list of these archives (and I'm not sure where that list is) would be more work than most might want. [Of course you would want to assure the Lesbian Herstory Archives gets a couple copies of each; their tape collection is superb.] 

Okay, sorry, I know I gave you more of a discussion than a solution....:)

Oh, for those out there who have collections of tapes by GLBT artists, and are ready to throw them away...please, ask me first, I may take the off your hands and at least you'd know they are ending up in an archives that appreciates them. I've "inherited" two or three collections like this in the past, and loved it.

JD Doyle
www.queermusicheritage.com


In a message dated 01/14/11 08:33:49 Central Standard Time, SandyRapp writes:
>From SandyRapp.com 
I've got a number of tapes from my 1995 We The People album and even  more 
from a 1986 release called "Hardweather Friends" which preceeded CDs. Has   
anyone found a use for tapes? No one buys them anymore but if there's 
anywhere  to send them, they're political and still relevant and I'd like take them 
somewhere other than the landfill. Thanks,  SandyRapp at aol.com 
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