AirCassette For iPhone: The ’80s Weren’t So Bad

I’m old enough to remember using cassette tapes, but also young enough to know it was already ancient technology. But still, there’s something about cassette tapes that interested me more than CDs or MP3s. A strip of freaking tape can hold music? And now that they’re pretty much dead, it’s sad. Thats why AirCassette is so awesome.

What’s it do?

It’s a music player for your iPhone that transforms CoverFlow and iTunes and MP3s into a faux cassette player. Which is to say, it’s not exactly a necessary app but AirCassete is a super fun one for those who are nostalgic for the days when cassettes and mix tapes were a symbol of cool. Instead of showing something like album art when a song is playing, you get a neat cassette tape image complete with spinning reels when the song plays. The artist and song title are scribbled on the tape, the list of songs, artists and albums look like the cassette case and it works like any other music player, tapping into what you already have on your iPhone. You can set up a queue of songs you want to hear next, share music and get this, make a mixtape (ha).

Why do we like it?

I’m an ’80s baby, so it’s not like CDs didn’t exist when I started listening to music, BUT I have fond memories of rushing to my boombox whenever my favourite song came on the radio and recording it on a cassette tape. Those mixtapes, which have disappeared now, were gold. After the day ended, I would play all the songs on the tape until I fell asleep. This is all a really long winded way of saying I miss those days. And AirCassette taps into that nostalgic feeling by giving me an awesome UI that awesomely recreates a tape. Seeing the cassette tape spin on my iPhone’s screen makes me happy. Like I remember where I came from or something.