In the 1970s, the cassette tape was improved. 8 tracks became very popular in the early 1970s. This would cause the part of the player that read the tape (the head) to start reading the next track. When the track was over, a very thin piece of metal in the tape would be sensed. There were four programs of music on each tape with two tracks on each program to create stereo sound. They did not need to be turned over to keep playing. Unlike cassettes, 8 tracks are a continuous loop of tape. It is a tape format which was created so people could play music in their cars. “Of course, this is probably very unlikely, but the worst-case scenario would be me being put out of a job, ultimately.”īut, until that unlikely future, Brown will keep looking for and rewinding old tapes to put new releases on.The 8-track is a music format which first appeared in the 1960s. “If other major labels see that eight-track is doing well and think, ‘Let’s do that,’ and it gets to the point where the presses start getting jammed up, maybe some manufacturer in China will decide to start (mass producing) eight-tracks again,” Brown says. However, if eight-track becomes “a thing” again, Brown says it could bring negative consequences to companies like his or Kate’s Track Shack. Overall, Brown says it was good to work with Sony and Columbia, and he hopes this recent project will lead to more work in the future. “‘Then, if you want to use it as a promo thing, give one away to a lucky fan or something.’” “I said, ‘Do what you want with them, but my suggestion is to give one to Mark Ronson if he’s willing to accept it,’” Brown says. But recently, Brown has recommended his clients have fans pre-order the eight-tracks, paying for the production and getting a more accurate count of how many will be sold.Įven though he wasn’t obligated to, Brown also produced a few copies of the album on reel-to-reel to send along with his eight-tracks. “There’s constantly people upset that (these releases) are sold out."Ī lot of Brown’s clients take this approach because his productions are often more expensive than expected, and they don’t know how well their eight-track releases will do. “They do a pre-sell, they sell out and then there are people who are upset that they didn’t get a chance to buy one,” he says. “I said, ‘Do what you want with them, but my suggestion is to give one to Mark Ronson if he’s willing to accept it.’” - Nathan Brown tweet this But that’s generally how these more obscure releases go, Brown says. The mini discs and eight-tracks sold out quickly after the album was released. The album was also put out on cassette and mini disc. “He said he was kind of working on some of the other executives to get them to go for the reel-to-reel stuff, but I guess they just kind of wanted to test the waters with (eight-track).”īrown finished the eight-track production about two months later. “An executive told me that they were mainly interested in doing some eight-tracks,” Brown says. Toward the end of March, Brown was contacted about the new release. Ronson's album was released in more conventional mediums, such as streaming platforms, CDs and vinyl, but the companies also wanted to test the waters with eight-track and reel-to-reel releases. Over the years, his business gained the attention of label executives. In 2006, Brown’s company became the second-largest producer of eight-tracks next to Kate’s Track Shack in Arlington. It’s one of the first eight-track releases by a major, old-school label like Columbia in 30 years. musician Mark Ronson’s new album Late Night Feelings, featuring Miley Cyrus and Alicia Keys. Now living in Denton, Brown is wrapping up a much smaller order for Sony Music Entertainment and Columbia Records, 40 eight-track copies of U.K. Last year, Nathan Brown, founder of Dead Media Tapes, was cooped up in his Fort Worth home with two friends, producing 1,000 copies of a new release on eight-track cassette for a band in Sweden - one of the company’s biggest orders to date.
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