Personics: The cassette-based iTunes Store of the 1980s

Personics was a pioneering but ultimately unsuccessful attempt at selling personalized playlists of music on demand, decades before the iTunes Store. But it didn't fail due to lack of interest from the public -- they were facing an uphill battle against an industry resistant to change.
Time flow:
0:00 Background
0:32 Introducing Personics
2:00 Music catalog
3:42 Locations
4:12 Genres
4:44 Record labels
5:28 The technology
9:14 The downfall
9:48 Why it failed
12:14 The singles game
13:06 Direct marketing
14:32 The end of Personics
15:36 Conclusion
Recommended reading:
Pitchfork article "The Forgotten Precursor to iTunes": pitchfork.com/thepitch/1340-t...
The Daily Ping article about Personics, including comments by co-founder Tom Sharples and their mastering engineer: www.dailyping.com/archive/2000...
Business 2.0 article "The Song Remains the Same": web.archive.org/web/200110050...
Wall Street Journal article from 2002 "Looking for Harmony: New technology could bring record stores into the digital age. Why hasn't it?":
www.wsj.com/articles/SB102762...
A look at the November 1988 Personics "Music Makers" magazine/catalog:
hercshideaway.blogspot.com/20...
And a full scan of the December 1990 Personics magazine/catalog:
drive.google.com/file/d/1a62F...
#cassette #RetroTech #iTunes

[@tomsharples816]

Wow, nice job on this video! This was the most ambitious technology development effort of my career and I still look back on it with great fondness - despite the unfortunate ending that was entirely the result of old-school music industry shortsightedness. Tom Sharples VP Engineering The Personics System

[@nickwallette6201]

I started watching this thinking, "huh -- in-store, same-day fulfillment? I wonder why this didn't catch on?" And then a couple minutes later, "oh... right, of course it was a label jack-hole with control issues and no vision. What else would it be?"

[@Rfk1966]

@tomsharples816 I didn’t live in the footprint of Personics, but would have loved to have used it. Typical record company BS. you’d think they would have offered recent songs like KTel and thats what I call music, etc. The record companies got their just desserts from Napster in the end. Thanks for creating a cool product, nonetheless

[@Dan-TechAndMusic]

The big wigs in the industry needed a Napster to come around and punish their greed, before they'd finally make music more accessible. They fought tooth and nail against it, but change they did.

[@haweater1555]

Napster lasted only a short time, and the record labels dismissed it for too long, not realizing the profound irrevocable change it made to the music business.

[@negirno]

They also needed Steve Jobs. Let's face it, he had only the money but the connections too, not to mention his reality distortion field.

[@brick6347]

​@@haweater1555KZbinr Scott Manley was an engineer at Napster... albeit very briefly, I believe, in the last few months.

[@christo930]

Sadly they did no such thing (punish the greed). iTunes had (and I think still has) all kinds of music from WAY back in the day where they charge 1.25 or 1.50 for the song and it may have gone up in the few years it has been since I used iTunes. Sadly, the music industry is one big grift. The behavior of the record industry/execs is absolutely appalling. They rip of the artists, they rip off the consumer and they fight against every breakthrough. The RCIAA is unique in private industry in the US in its ability to TAX consumers. That's right, an industry advocacy group can levy taxes on US consumers. It is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS that they can do this. They totally killed audio compact disc recording with this evil power granted to them by the traitors in DC. If I had my way, they would ALL be in jail and that's if I was a good mood. These *EVIL* people actually sued the Girl Scouts because they were doing the macarina without the RCIAA's express written permission.

[@OzRetrocomp]

I know it wasn't easy for Apple to get record labels on board with iTunes, but I suspect that without Napster leading the way and the dump truck full of money generated by the G3 iMac behind it, iTunes would have fallen flat on its face.

[@jasonwilliams6005]

The technology and quality that went into this at that time is impressive.

[@AkosJaccik]

Oh wow, this sounds like an extremely competent and well designed system for the era at least on the technical level.

[@repatch43]

The actions of the music labels is why I've never felt particularly bad about getting the music I want any way I want.

[@googaagoogaa12345678]

Agreed about most things now especially games.

[@daveandreahoward8203]

In 1978, on Kadena air force base on Okinawa, the army had set up a very similar set up, where you went to the place, chose your songs from a catalog and had a cassette tape made. I wore the resulting greatest hits of the summer of 78 tape down to the pads.

[@SoundOfYourDestiny]

Did it contain "Baker Street"? Or "Boogie Oogie Oogie?" You couldn't get away from those in '78.

[@hahanah1463]

One of your best videos i think. The music labels are ironically what have always slowed down and damaged the music industry

[@Craig_Spurlock]

I loved the Personics system, I made over ten tapes during their run. I graduated High School in 1992, so Personics got me through part of it.

[@kemi242]

I didn't know, there was an online music store predating iTunes. Thumbs up for the cameo of 8-bit Guy at 14:10.

[@paulytamale]

“Oh sweetie! You made me a personalized, high quality, computer-printed mix tape for our anniversary!” Hits play 90 minutes of toilet flushing

[@vwestlife]

Also from what I've read, people would have fun writing down obscene names and titles on their order form, just to see if the store clerk would actually print it on the tape's J-card.

[@2011joser]

We absolutely loved this service when it came out. Me and my friends made some tapes that were very high quality . Ultimately we stopped using it because too many of the artists we liked were missing and would have to buy them separately.

[@Caseytify]

The industry was finally dragged, kicking & screaming, into the digital world. Yah iTunes. ... Always had good luck with TDK SA tapes back in the day. I could listen to those, and preserve my records.

[@RalphRacc00N]

yay not owning anything and if the woke idiots at apple don't like your music they'll remove it, you cant keep it. cloud media is full 1984.

[@RJDA.Dakota]

Those MA and SA TDK cassette tapes were legendary. I still have several and they still play like the day I recorded them. Several of them I have changed over to CD. Maxell was also a legendary label as well.

[@SanderEvers]

For all the hate Apple often gets, we can thank them for iTunes and opening up digital audio for consumers.

[@nickwallette6201]

@@SanderEvers Yep. Regardless your opinion of Apple, to have someone running a company _that_ big, making devices aligned to the music industry, enough clout to bully the labels, and enough determination to give the consumer something at a reasonable price, with good quality, and no strings attached... That's really, REALLY rare.

[@stevie.dx1710]

I'm a survivor of the 80s but I've never heard of this before. Probably because I would beg, borrow and check out CDs from the local library and record them onto VHS Hi-Fi tapes and make my own cassettes from them. Now I have 11,300 songs in my system which is just about every song I've ever liked. My how times have changed. Thank you for this, Kevin.

[@appliedengineering4001]

Did you ever watch MTV back then. They ran several ads for Personics there.

[@stevie.dx1710]

@@appliedengineering4001No, not much. I was a rock drummer in local bands in the 80s and missed about 10 years of TV.

[@SoundOfYourDestiny]

That's awesome! I also archived stuff on VHS Hi-Fi, which was the best home recording technology until DAT came along. I was super excited to find a lone copy of the out-of-print soundtrack to Raiders of the Lost Ark at the main library in Chicago, which I committed to VHS Hi-Fi and then actually returned for the next person to come along and be shocked that no one had stolen it yet.

[@tvradio1972]

I remember Personics. They were at my local Sam Goody store when I was a teenager. I still have a couple of their custom tapes somewhere. Have a Merry Christmas.

[@geekwithsocialskills]

What a blast from the past! I worked at a Wherehouse Music back in the day and remember Personics. Somewhere in a box buried I have some Personics tapes. After watching your video I'll need to dig those out 🙂

[@cheritripp9470]

Mines are with the others Professional Tapes that I brought. It's about 12 (plus the 2 Xmas tapes that I have in the office for holiday playing)

[@Eliotime3000]

Honestly, the record labels had their golden egg goose in their face and they deprecated them until Steve Jobs sold them the idea again and with the threat of massive copyvios with the rise of digital formats, they finally accepted that kind of incarnation of Personics. That was a sad history of how profitable were the mixtape as a business and the entire industry ignored that market.

[@MrDuncl]

I recall that The Beatles were one of the last hold outs against iTunes. The irony was that in the 1970s when they were considered to be has-beens, you could buy EMI albums or their music for £1 in the local supermarket.

[@NWGADX]

5:09 You Rick rolled us, VWestlife on your cassettes!

[@horrortackleharry]

15:30 In the 2020s the music industry has now finally solved the issue of distributing the current popular music that people actually want.... by no longer producing it in the first place.

[@syferdet]

In the 2030s, the music industry will be fully on board with AI so that every song on the Hot 100 will be computer generated. And since AI requires already existing sources of information, it will all be ripoffs of prior works which will lead to enterprising teenagers learning how to play actual instruments again, thus restarting the cycle of life of popular music.

[@jjukkyumiz]

to each their own! I rather enjoy modern pop myself :)

[@belstar1128]

Yea but we don't need the music industry anymore anyway passionate artists can just upload their stuff themselves and see if people like it

[@MrDuncl]

@@belstar1128 The problem is that in the past a band or musician could make a living from a small but loyal fan base buying their music. With 20000 streams they would be lucky to get any money at all.

[@googaagoogaa12345678]

​@jjukkyumiz there are gems here and there but there was a time where nearly everything was great

[@guessundheit6494]

It's a brilliant idea, far better than "official" year end compilations. Those record company CDs may contain "20 of the biggest hits of the year!", but if you hate the pop charts, you're not going to buy it. As for oldies, I loved 1950s and 1960s music and would have loved tapes full of ORIGINAL versions, not remakes (vis-a-vis VWL's video on re-recordings). 10:50 - They predated napster by a decade, Personics proved it would increase sales. Multiple studies showed that people who "pirate" music, movies and TV shows BUY MORE, because (a) people are honest, and (b) they want to know what they're getting before they buy it. (See also: movie reviews being better than trailers.) This is why K-Tel records sold well for decades, letting people know what they're paying for.

[@MrDuncl]

Here in the U.K. "Now That's What I Call Music" copied the K-Tel idea but with the backing of two major record labels. "Now" has just celebrated its fortieth Anniversary with 120 million albums sold.

[@bricktasticanimations4834]

I liked how he just casually Rick Rolled us.

[@filthylucreonyoutube]

I know, right? And with era-appropriate media! I'm still a bit disoriented 🥴

[@CommodoreFan64]

It's sad the record labels did not get onboard with this idea, as I would have really liked this as a kid, and into my teens to make a mixtape in just a few minutes for a low cost, vs. waiting all nite to download something off dial-up only for it to be the wrong thing, or waste a CD-R, or 2 because the burner failed for one reason, or another.

[@BilisNegra]

But was it low cost? A buck per track means such a mixtape would cost about 15. Now adjust that for 35 years of inflation later...

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@BilisNegra Think of it this way, a normal full album CD unless it was on sale, or used in the 90's was on average $15 to well over $20 for a double CD, or special edition album, so let's say it's 1994, and you paid $15 for the Ace of Base CD(first big group from that year I could think of off the top of my head), that would be almost $32 in 2023 dollars(according to the U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS inflation calculator), so yeah still cheaper buying one of these mixtapes from the kiosk than a normal album on CD, or on tape that was not much cheaper if any, and many people like myself had boomboxes with both CD, and Tape in the 90's, plus many cars still had tape decks well in the early 00's like Toyotas, and Fords that did both(I still own a 02 F-150 crew cab 4 door that has both), so playing it would not have been a problem either. So yeah the record industry could have made a fair bit of coin off this till digital took over with more people getting high speed internet in the mid to late 00's, had they not had their heads up their asses.

[@raymondmartin6737]

Yes, I had a couple of Personics cassettes made at Sam Goody store in 1991. The audio quality was good. 😊

[@shayne87]

I had a few of these as a teen. When I got mine, the kiosk was self contained. No record store employee helped if I remember correctly but i could be mistaken it was a while ago and I was probably high lol. But I do vividly remember that the catalog was limited and new songs were not available, nor was any real hip hop and urban contemporary. I also remember it was at Sam Goody in Woodbridge mall in NJ. I lived 5 mins from Mall Capital USA Paramus NJ, but Bergen County stores were (AND STILL ARE IN 2024) under Blue Laws and closed on Sundays

[@2011joser]

I remember it being self service also.

[@marktubeie07]

Script writing in this episode has hit a new level, love it !! 🤗

[@davidbutler8096]

They had the system at 3 out of the 4 record stores in my town. I still have a half dozen of them. I always used the one in Licorice Pizza. Thanks for the trip down Memory Lane.

[@azjames8789]

You always put out the coolest videos ever with the most unique content that nobody else thinks of! I look forward to my weekly fix of VWestlife! I wish you a wonderful 2024!

[@howtobebasic2122]

5:10 is this a Vwestlife Video where i get Rick Rolled.

[@DgaDM]

Very interesting, never have heard from it (in Germany). Like in many cases, Apple hasn't invented it, but they managed to negotiate with the major labels that they can include all songs and not only the older ones.

[@LatteLover]

Wouldn't honestly mind these days for this service! Merry Christmas dude!

[@Markimark151]

Personics was a bit ahead of its time, I feel the record companies didn’t want their new songs to be sold at a loss. I do remember a CD kiosk equivalent at Tower Records in the mid to late 90s, that had a playlist of up to 10 songs that were modern pop songs. I remember it was sponsored by Phillips.

[@CoachOta]

I saw a CD burning kiosk in a music store in Boston around 1994 or 1995 when I was in college. It was self-service and had a screen for song selection. I remember being off put by the expensive cost, like $30 per custom disc when most CDs were $15 or maybe $20 if you went to a pricier shop. I wish I had a disc made. It would've been an interesting collector's item now!

[@Markimark151]

@@CoachOta those kiosks overpriced the cost of a custom CD, even though $30 is way too expensive for an album of mixed songs. I would’ve tried it if I was an adult at that time, because I was a teenager and couldn’t afford to make a custom album of my favorite hit songs from the kiosk. Then the CD burners in computers became affordable, my cousin made a mixed playlist of songs on CD!

[@MrDuncl]

@@CoachOta I have a 1993 computer magazine with an advert for a Philips CD writer. Clearly aimed at businesses the write was about £1500 and the CD-Rs £25 each. I don't know how much prices had dropped to by 1995 but they were cheap.

[@Thiesi]

7:52 - Oh my, I haven't seen one of those in a long time! Over here in Germany, the _Chrome Maxima II_ you showed in the video were the cassettes of choice for many as they provided decent audio quality at an affordable price. I would stock up on those tapes whenever they were on sale at ... well, I think we used to buy tapes at department stores, but I don't actually remember. I do remember though, most of my self-recorded tapes were indeed _Chrome Maxima II,_ as were most of those recorded by my classmates. Those were the days, Kevin, those were the days!

[@jmi5969]

Indeed. No quasi-chrome replacement can beat a good true chrome. But, IIRC, very few recordists could afford to use the Maxima then ... and even less so today.

[@__hjg__2123]

So cool-- i still have my two Personics tapes made at that Sam Goody in Eatontown NJ (Monmouth Mall) stored in some box around here... i may have to dig them out. thanks for reminding me of something i had forgotten about!

[@weasel2htm]

Here is something I totally didn't expect to learn about today... Well done.

[@stereophonicstuff]

This must be the first video of yours to have an F-bomb in it! This was an excellent education in what once was and could’ve been much more successful had it not been undermined by the record companies. For the time, this really was revolutionary technology.

[@cheritripp9470]

Oh, I loved Personics. I still have those tapes. I think I got them from JR Music World. I even created some for my friend as a birthday present Double Your Pleasure. Original Song and their Remake. I made a Personics Tapestry version. The original song and Carole King version. There was two copies made, one for myself and the other for my friend. Even did a Double Your Pleasure version of Christmas songs. Friendship (Stand By Me, You're A Friend Of Mines, Thank You For Being A Friend, etc) I greatly enjoyed making and buying those tapes. Thanks for the memories.

[@strawllashi]

ngl, i wish something like personics still existed.

[@shloomyshloms]

I always wanted to be able to do this in the 80's but never knew about it.

[@Charlesb88]

I actually bought a few Personics custom cassettes back in the late 80s from a now defunct record store chain called Rainbow Records. Still have the cassettes to this day. At the time I remember the song selection being really sparse and an odd mix of songs but given what you said about the pushback from the record labels, it makes sense know.

[@christo930]

I had one of these made up back in the early 90s. I don't know if it was the same exact service, but it worked in the same exact way. The problem with it is it was very expensive. An album on cassette back then was about 5 bucks. But one of these mix tapes could easily run 15 or more Dollars. I think they charged several Dollars just for the tape. I only ever used the service one time.

[@PaulMiller-mn3me]

“Heavy Metal” at 4:20 repping NYHC pretty hard…. Agnostic Front, Cro Mags, and Leeway!

[@thelunarlaugh2415]

Gary Morris' version of Wind Beneath My Wings was a number 4 country hit about 4 years before Midler's version appeared on the soundtrack of her film Beaches.

[@cybercruxz]

Content Publishers are, and have always been, evil greedy bastards. DRM is a bane of any media consumers life. My digital TV reboots anytime it can't keep up with the encryption/decryption required to transmit digital media over HDMI. Now that I have that out of my system, this was a GREAT retrospective on a system I'd never heard of. They were definitely ahead of their time. Thank you for sharing that bit of history and doing a really excellent job in the process.

[@wellfuckyoumr]

Man really hit them with the “yOu WoUlDNt DoWNlOaD A CaR”

[@jerryspann8713]

Would we?

[@taofanarchy96-renzomaracas14]

3d printers: _”Allow us to introduce ourselves”_

[@idahofur]

You hit the nail on the head. I remember hearing about system like that in the 90's. Went to my local music store in the mall. Nothing. I'm pretty sure it was not Personics. But, I do remember looking up another company that did the same thing and found the major issue as you pointed out. No company wanted to license the music. I remember being a kid and going to the thrift store to pickup some used 45's. One side hit song The other side blank, same song or a Holiday song. I had to ask my mom about it. She explained the record companies didn't want you to get 2 hits on single Esp. since it happened. I'm also pretty sure Single CD's and Cassette would have survived it you could get any song you wanted on it.

[@alyro-ls1dv]

Thank you for the good research and the fine video. I was not aware of such a product and as this was the time I grew up it felt rather heartwarming to learn of a product which was so well thought out and available to the customers at that time. And the tapes really still sound great as these were some top products of the time. Wish you and your loved ones a peaceful 2024.

[@stevejohnson1321]

I still have my personics liner printout from back in the day. Probably the tape met demise. If memory serves, I paid $4.40 for six songs. It was my only way to get a clean copy of Surfaris Wipeout. What I can't remember is what record store. The newest copyright date is 1985, so I created it after that.

[@christo930]

Cassettes were widely available in the mid 90s and occupied 1/2 or more of the floor space in most music shops until 2000 and beyond. 45s were being phased out at the time. I was a bitter clinger to the 45 format precisely because it is rare for me to like an entire album. Why waste 5 or 6 Dollars or more for an album when I can buy a 45 for 99 cents Sadly, the early to mid 90s are mostly the only 45s I still have and that are in excellent condition. I would buy the 45, play it one time on a decent quality turntable recording it to tape. Then listen to it from the tape I made. In the late 80s and early 90s, the Dollar store (though they were generally 99 cent stores) was coming into its own and the ones in my area were selling cassettes with a bunch of hits on the cassette for a buck. Though it was mostly of older songs, the songs were only old in the music sense. I was finding tapes with last year's hits on them in these Dollar stores. Franklin Mills had a couple of these 99 cent stores that carried them too. Sadly, most of these that I bought back then were stolen out of a car I owned. They broke the window and stole the tapes.

[@belstar1128]

yea cassettes only stopped being mainstream in 2003 they where still a popular budget option in the year 2000 but most people wanted to move on to cd

[@christo930]

@@belstar1128 I think tapes would have held on if not for mp3. CDs were always bad for exercising, which is a common portable use case. MP3 didn't have the size and skipping problems CD had. Plus CD audio recording was convoluted and (uniquely, at least in the US) the RIAA tax scheme killed it off for good. The RIAA was actually granted taxing authority for blank audio CDs. For ever blank audio CD, a tax was paid to the RIAA.

[@belstar1128]

@@christo930 maybe but i think people would have moved on to mini disc or some digital tape system eventually .i know a lot of audiophiles replaced their tapes with mini disc. but the rise of mini disc was interrupted by the rise of mp3 before it got mainstream .

[@christo930]

@@belstar1128 I suppose it is possible minidisc would have picked up, but here in America, most people preferred cassettes to minidisc, at least as far as purchasing goes. Minidisc was a total flop in the US. It did solve one other problem too. The size of the media. CD just isn't a great portable format because the player doesn't fit even a large pocket. But the minidisc could fit in a medium sized pocket, I think.

[@xyzrandom3981]

Great video. Thanks so much for including all the random samples (e.g. European Telephone) as well!

[@Darkuni]

I had several tapes created by this system. It was a mostly a self-service thing when I used it. The biggest issue was - of course - that not everyone was playing ball meaning you couldn't get everything you wanted. It was pretty good for old back catalog stuff though.

[@CARLiCON]

Great vid V-Dub..not sure if you saw this, but there was an old 1990 Computerworld article about Personics as apparently it won a Computerworld Smithsonian Award. That article says the machine was an IBM PC AT-based industrial controller, made by NCR, fitted with special boards made by Personics. There must have been some compression on the CDs as the article also says Personics used a Dolby Labs technique to get 50 to 70 songs on each disc. I was particularly interested when you mentioned NCR as I work in an old building where NCR manufactured computers in the 80s.

[@entity76]

I still have one of these from the late 80s early 90s

[@JimmyZNJ]

I remember Personics well, even though I never ended up getting a custom mix tape made. As you pointed out, their selections were a bit behind the hit music wave I was trying to ride. I do remember them though in some of the music stores I frequented here in NJ in that era.

[@diet-marc3258]

You make the perfect videos to watch while eating midnight snacks

[@lv_woodturner3899]

Very interesting. I had not heard of Personics before. Thanks for the video.

[@sorakat42]

I got to make one of these back when I was in middle school. Got it from the Sam Goody in Woodbridge Center in NJ. I called it The Tubular Top Ten. And yeah, that title sure dates it. I've forgotten about that tape until seeing this. Thinking about it now I do remember it was one of my favorite tapes that I had.

[@rossthompson1635]

Very interesting; never heard of this system - I don't know of anything equivalent here in the UK. Seems like a very innovative use of the technology of the day - but doomed by the record companies.

[@jonnywishbone4805]

Yeah this is like parallel universe stuff for us

[@aris95]

They should establish this service again

[@rossthompson1635]

@@aris95 Yes - and it would be really cool if you could order a bespoke Vinyl LP as well.

[@MrDuncl]

Maybe we, and U.K. record companies, embraced the compilation album more. "Now That's What I call Music" is now 40 years old and has sold over 120 million albums.

[@jonnywishbone4805]

@@MrDuncl So much so that the UK album chart was split in 1989 so compilations had their own chart

[@LanceCSTCuddy]

Love it! We had one at our local Wherehouse in SoCal. Side note, as someone who knows someone at BASF, they call it “bee-aay-ess-eff”.

[@CosasdeOswaldo]

I love your channel because of videos like this! Thank you so much! I grew up using cassettes but it was at the end of its popularity. I was born in 1993 and I used cassettes regularly until 2005, but watching videos like this makes me realize that I still have a lot more to learn about cassette history...

[@dashyot]

Great video, and Merry Christmas!

[@CavemanPerson]

Wow, they were using Dolby Digital for making custom tapes...in the 80s! That's fascinating. I don't think movie theaters were even using DD yet. IIRC the big theaters in my city started playing the Dolby intro in '94 or '95!

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

Merry Christmas Kevin ! Your video is my Christmas gift you're the best

[@TheGreenDoggoOfWisdom]

Merry Christmas Vwestlife! Also, the man himself saying a bad word uncensored? Christmas has gotten better!

[@DaveTheBird]

Just wanted to say a brilliant upload, I really enjoyed your report on this bit of music history, happy new year!!!!

[@tvfromvcr8331]

Very thorough analysis! Always a pleasure. Merry Christmas and thanks for your content this year!

[@tomarnd8724]

I didn't know this was ever a thing, great job documenting it!

[@Tardus89]

This was amazing! I never knew these existed. I would have all over begging my mom for a mixtape. 😅

[@howtobebasic2122]

Merry Christmas Vwestlife!

[@kijar]

This is so exciting to me. Merry Christmas

[@manolokonosko2868]

... and then when Napster, Limewire, and other peer to peer music sharing software, including torrent downloads, came along and devoured music sales taking the labels near the realm of bankruptcy, as they deserved, they quickly agreed to pimp their artists for 79c and then 99c a track. Personics was a great idea, unfortunately ahead of its time, and sometimes companies are not rewarded for their innovation and vision. Mr. Kevin, this is a GREAT video. Good job!!!!

[@robvdc]

Thanks to your video, I just learned about a distribution method that I was totally unaware of because I live in Europe (Belgium) 🙋‍♂️

[@padraigcollins6525]

Fantastic video. Great research.

[@ynda777]

I had one! I do remember it was kinda hard to fill out the tape with the selection available. My tape had an error - I guess my handwriting was bad - the tape had a track I didn't order!

[@codebeat4192]

Excellent docu! Wow, didn't know this service ever existed. The amount of effort and engineering went into this system is mind blowing. It shows us again that most of the record companies are not willing to change their stone age money hungry business model for a great third-party service solution with a product that is effortable by everyone.

[@limabravo0001]

Once again my hero knocks it out of the park! 🏳‍🌈🥰 So basically the greed of the music companies killed off this innovative business. It was nice for it's time, but it was doomed anyway because cassettes were rapidly about to vanish. Funny back in my day I kinda had a similar business idea...but instead custom burnt CD kiosks (I had no idea the cassette thing was a thing). But now i see the greedy music companies would never allow it.

[@haweater1555]

14:10. Thumbs up to the reference to 8 Bit Guy.

[@Choralone422]

While I never saw the Personics system back in the day, I'm sure I would have tried it out and I'm glad this video exists on it! One thing that's been true for well over 50 years, probably closer to 75 years is the big wigs in the music business are ultra protective and conservative. They do not want change unless that change can directly create profit for them! I saw it first hand in the mid 90s when I was a store manager at a regional chain of used only CD stores in the Midwest. A small part of my job was to read industry magazines like Billboard which the store was provided with. The only reason why that and other similar chains of used music stores were allow to exist at the time was because the stores had to pay double digit percentages on the sales of used music CDs back to industry groups like the RIAA and ASCAP. The owner was constantly trying to drive sales of related goods like posters, t-shirts, replacement jewel cases and so-on as he would not have to pay fees on the back-end for those sales.

[@dashcamandy2242]

3:43 - Meriden, New Haven, Trumbull, Westport, Stamford, Danbury, Farmington, Hartford, Providence... All a minimum of 35 minutes' drive from home. Guess that explains why I'd never heard of them before, and there's no way I'd be able to convince my parents to take me that far when we had access to two Strawberries locations, a mall with Record Town, Record World, and Tape World, and of course department stores like Bradlees, Caldor, and Ames (and eventually Walmart, whose anti-theft system would always partially-erase brand-new tapes when deactivated). It got so bad at Walmart that I'd tell the cashier NOT to move the tape across the coil, they'd do it anyway, and I'd walk straight from the register to Courtesy for an exchange. 5:09 - We just got "Rick Rolled" at a slightly higher tempo... 😆 Showing my age, I knew what album it was simply by reading the track listing through the cassette door. 7:56 - "Don't Tell Me Lies," or I'll raise my "Hands To Heaven" and "Say a Little Prayer." 😛 All three tracks, when played in the car, get a generous clockwise twist of the volume knob. (Same with "How Can I Fall?" but I couldn't work that into a sentence.) Also, I'm a huge fan of TDK SA-series tapes, really good stock used in those, so I'm glad that Personics didn't go cheap. Every time I see that clip of 8-Bit Guy retrieving a cassette from Techmoan from his mailbox, it reminds me of that KZbinPoop where the tape contains nothing but Mat's karaoke version of "Get Lucky." 🤣 kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXq7gHtnqa99q5Ysi=kEAvqEvkMhpEqaMU&t=31

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Another great example of a great idea that was sabotaged & ignored by the Music industry that could have absolutely profited from it… But chose to NOT get on board...

[@JessHull]

this is pretty neat, I've seen these personics tapes at thrifts stores and always wondered what they were because some of them had some of the most bizar mix of music on them. As if several different family members chose the songs.

[@ii_andre_ii2575]

I've been one of their stores in National City, California (location shown at 4:00). Obviously, it's no longer a Sam Goody, but a store of it's parent company, "FYE". They sell CDs, vinyls, and novelty items. It's at my local mall, maybe next time I go, I'll ask if they still have the Personics system, or something like that.

[@mazda9624]

I'm just impressed by how high quality the actual product was. This was an idea/company that genuinely wanted to give consumers a genuinely great product that was honestly pretty cutting-edge for its time. Obviously audio cassettes were already yesterday's news by 1987, but a super fast way to make a custom playlist that was also high quality? I would have spent so much money on those back in the day. Thank goodness they weren't around by the time I was buying music lol.

[@rocksnot952]

When I first saw that in California, I was blown away. The future!

[@albear972]

1:49 Ohh man! I remember The Warehouse in So-Cal from back in the 80's-early 90's. And interesting, I hadn't heard of this Personics stuff before.

[@RussellFlowers]

Thank you, I had never heard of this service!

[@BollingHolt]

Oh wow. That's cool! As I am 42 and in Montgomery, AL., it's unsurprising I haven't heard of them until now. I agree with you that it would be cool if a fully-functioning unit (or one that could be restored) was found!

[@dcb_75]

It is really amazing how the music industry's greed and unwillingness to change cost them so much money over the years. They weren't worried about copyright as they knew what was being recorded - they were just greedy and wanted to force you to buy a whole album for just one song, that's all. Clearly compilation albums were in demand, KTel proved that and the labels were selling their own for years. But they controlled it and here they wouldn't have any say. I think if this had been more successful and the labels allowed full access to their libraries, it would have really disrupted how they operate as maybe people wouldn't be buying artist X that is being pushed but rather want Y. Like Blockbuster, they were making money and happy with how it is, what we wanted didn't matter.

[@NALTOHQ]

Pretty cool idea. Happy Holidays vwestlife, and else who sees this.

[@garypage1963]

Thanks vwestlife, great video they were way ahead of their time. All the best 👍

[@v12alpine]

I remember making a personics tape back in the day. Bunch of random songs but I did opt for the burp compilation sound effect lol.

[@revolver64]

I totally remember this at my local Wherehouse. I had a few of these, wish I still had them. This was a pretty big deal for deep dive music collectors at the time, that couldn’t or wouldn’t buy random 45s or 12”s just to get a single song.

[@MrDuncl]

That could also take a lot of "crate diving". Having bought them myself, the success of albums like "Jive Bunny and the Master Mixers" was them including covers of songs which you hadn't heard for years and, in a pre WWW world, you honestly thought you might not hear again for years.

[@TheScarab1975]

I had a few of these custom made tapes. Bought them at the local Wherehouse music store.

[@CreachterZ]

I wish we could make mix tapes these days. You can’t even make mix streams unless you know what service(s) the recipient subscribes to.

[@AnalogueInTheUK]

Awesome work, pal.

[@greetingsfrom5015]

BTW, Garry Morris was great and so was his version of Wind Beneath my Wings

[@MVVblog]

This video is pure GOLD!

[@FlugPoP]

@3:48 thank you. I remember the Wherehouse in Fontana California had one of these machines when I was a kid, I feel like my dad may have made a tape of "oldies" at the time.

[@rogerturner1881]

i still have a list from a New Zealand firm that you could ask the artists songs that they had to make a tape. Fortunately i had all the Connie Francis songs on the list and i didn't do that. I still have the list. This was around the mid 1970's. Something similar to the PERSONICS. i'll have to dig it out.....Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year 2024 from Athens/Greece..

[@haweater1555]

Personics tapes made sense at the time when a blank CD-R costs more than a prerecorded one and home writing software often turned them into coasters.

[@bltvd]

That Chesney Hawkes cassingle is dope!

[@fartking2845]

Merry Christmas VWestlife!