Home Taping Is Killing Music
Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 12:33PM I noticed something in the lower left corner of my vinyl copy of Tygers of Pang Tang The Cage the other day. A little graphic featuring a Jolly Roger and the words "Home Taping Is Killing Music." So of course I Googled (as you do) and found a treasure trove of information.
The phrase has a whole Wiki page and starts:
"Home Taping Is Killing Music" was the slogan of a 1980s anti-copyright infringement propaganda campaign by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a British music industry trade group. With the rise in cassette recorder popularity, the BPI feared that the ability of private citizens to record music from the radio onto cassettes would cause a decline in record sales. The logo, consisting of a Jolly Roger formed from the silhouette of a compact cassette, also included the words "And It's Illegal". The campaign was officially launched by then-BPI chairman Chris Wright on 28 October 1981.
Obviously, this was overtly mocked and punk bands had a field day. Then came Metallica and Napster... and later bit torrents and the decline of the major record label deal and fall of MTV... so musicians have basically all just relented that their music is stolen and the way to make money is by touring and selling merchandise.
Taping songs off the radio is one of my favorite kid-time memories. I loved it! I had so many custom cassettes I made from songs I "stole" I guess. More often than not, I ended up buying the album eventually anyway. I feel sorry for today's kids who don't know the joy of fighting with a double tape deck and pressing record at the perfect time to get a clean recording of a beloved song from commercial radio. (Insert "Okay Boomer!" here).
I don't recall ever seeing the little Home Taping warning on any other album I own. How about you? Do you remember the warning?
The Home Taping Is Killing Music campaign looks really odd in retrospect. A combination of knee-jerk panic, fear of new technology, iconography adjacent to the idea that Video Nasties could 'get' you from beyond the tape, and time-honoured finger-wagging at 'teenagers'. pic.twitter.com/ma5fCO40xp
— Tim Worthington (@outonbluesix) January 28, 2023
“Home taping is killing music” ☠️ pic.twitter.com/Cen1RNwRdR
— JayKeeley (@doomedparade) March 7, 2021