Tape trading
Tape trading is the name given to exchanging music on a compact cassette .
At the beginning of the 1980s this opportunity was used to make other interested parties aware of unknown music groups as well as very rare records and demo recordings . Many bands became well known through tape trading. One of the best examples is probably Metallica , which after a short time aroused the interest of various record companies and managers due to the spread of their two demo cassettes Power Metal (1981) and No Life 'Til Leather (1982) and a short time later achieved worldwide fame.
Tape trading was especially important for those interested in music who lived in the Eastern Bloc , as it was often difficult to get hold of publications from the West here.
Tape trading was primarily carried out by fans, not by the artists themselves. Recommendable material was passed on to friends who then passed it on to other interested parties, etc.
Tape trading is almost completely extinct these days. Since the advent of digital media, there has hardly been any interest in laboriously copying cassettes, and so people fall back on MP3 data carriers, the possibilities offered by the Internet, as well as CD-R or MiniDisc .