Way back in the day, I had a hand-me-down Walkman. It was so very awesome until a friend of a friend stole it off me, along with a mix tape that I had made for a special lady friend. I never had any theft issues after that, the main reason being that my parents didn’t see fit to buy me another Walkman.
At one time cassette tapes were the cutting edge of personal music collections – during the mid 1980s, cassettes accounted for more than half of the worlds total music sales. With the coming of the digital age, the cassette has been replaced by CDs, MP3 players, playlists, and music libraries.
Instead of collecting dust in boxes, surely there must be alternate uses for humble cassette tape? Indeed there are. Find out after the jump.
As art
Artist iri5 uses old cassettes in series called Ghost in the Machine. The series shows celebrities and musicians such as Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Ian Curtis, and Jim Morrison made from the tape.
As an MP3 player
From Chinavisions, comes an MP3 Player that is built into a standard cassette casing. With seven button interface and SD slot, you can use is as an old school-shaped MP3 Player or through your standard tape player.
As a USB hub
The retro-styling Cassette Tape Four Port USB Hub comes with four USB 2.0 ports and is bound to look cool on your desk.
As an iPod case
The green-conscious people at Contexture Design gut reclaimed cassette tapes and rebuild them to fit your 4th generation iPod nano.
As a lamp
The ingenious designers at Transparent House glued together a selection of old tapes to create an super-cool source of lighting. The a cool-burning neon light source to keep the plastic cassettes from melting.