TAPED CONFESSION

I’m one of those notorious “home tapers” the RIAA is screaming about (Pop Eye, by Patrick Goldstein, Dec. 14). A music lover and an audiophile, I have $6,000 worth of stereo gear and $7 worth of furniture in my living room. I spend $50-$100 a week on albums and compact discs, then tape them, because on my $4,000 car system, all prerecorded cassettes sound like they were dubbed in sewer pipes.

My heart goes out to the record industry over DAT (digital audio tape). These poor souls have seen their sales increase geometrically over the last few decades. Now, thanks to the miracle of compact discs, they can get us Baby Boomers to buy music we already own , without any added production or promotion costs. And why do these little pieces of plastic cost so much more than the bigger ones?

Just ask John Fogerty: the film and TV industries are charities compared to the music game. I’ve seen many musicians’ lives ruined. Now these crumbs want to keep us from making better tapes.

Wouldn’t it be great if we all stopped buying their music, got some guitars and started making our own?

JEFF ROSS

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