Nice Price Books and Records hosted a mixtape exchange Saturday as part of the worldwide event Cassette Store Day.

Unlike vinyl records, which can be expensive and take more than six months to produce, cassettes are relatively cheap and easy to make. The same goes for devices that can be used to play cassettes.

“You can just find tape players,” said Molly Hastings, designer for Nice Price Books. “I’ve found working ones in the dumpster.”

Hastings, or local musician beverly tender, helped organize the event. The bookshelves inside were moved to make space for the official mixtape exchange. Participants came and went, leaving behind their own personally designed tapes and browsing through the selection on the table.

Hastings describes the event as a “reaction to Record Store Day.”

“It typically costs a lot of money to play vinyl,” Hastings said. “So they’re very picky about who releases. It’s a lot easier for smaller bands to release cassettes instead.”

Hastings would know, as her songwriting vehicle beverly tender is releasing an original tape through Cassette Store Day. Nice Price also published a zine, or a self-published booklet, about how to make mixtapes for the event. 

Novelty is appealing when it comes to music, especially when combined with the nostalgia that comes with making a mixtape.

“There are special releases for the day, and we have a mixtape exchange going on,” said Brian Shaw, Nice Price Books and Records owner. “Bring one and you can leave with one. We also have a dubbing station so if someone brings a mixtape that a lot of people like, they can copy and record it to other tapes.”

Cassettes have begun to resurface in the dialogue surrounding modern music, despite their age and unfamiliarity. 

“A lot of bands are self-releasing through cassettes because it’s an inexpensive way to release a record,” Shaw said. “You can turn it out really quickly. Everything that sucks about putting out an album, logistically, doesn’t exist when you use cassette tapes.”

Cassettes are virtually obsolete, which adds to their character. It’s normal for cassette tapes to have quirks or something similar that affects the quality of sound.

“Cassettes have this airy quality to their sound,” Shaw said. Shaw explained a Mariah Carey cassette that had a lot of distortion on it. As a result, Mariah Carey ends up sounding “like she’s underwater.”

What’s cooler than a mermaid Mariah Carey underwater? Looks like I need a tape player.