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About

Established March 2016, Bluelight Tapes is a DIY cassette label originally based in Detroit, MI.  Since 2021 we have been operating out of Chicago, IL, USA. 

We started making tapes in January 2016, when Jon wanted to make himself some cassettes to take on tour. Some other artist friends asked about having their own tapes made, which was a new idea to us at the time. After some planning and research Bluelight Tapes was officially launched in March 2016. The label grew over the years, branching out into different genres and styles, releasing tapes by artists across North America + the world. The releases in our multi-genre catalog range from club music to punk rock, hip hop to noise, ambient to hardcore and more. In 2021 Bluelight Tapes put out its 50th release. Since 2016, we've also manufactured thousands of tapes for other labels and independent musicians through our made-to-order service.

We believe cassette tape is a format "for the people". Anyone with a tape deck and a blank cassette can get their music into another person's hands. We are part of a DIY tradition that we are happy and honored to uphold. Cassettes have been phased out of mainstream music production for decades, but the format has been kept alive and growing by passionate ‘tape heads’. We are happy to share our skills and methods, we want everyone to be able to enjoy the magic of cassettes. Bluelight Tapes uses all consumer-grade equipment for our production, we use vintage Kenwood cassette decks for our recording.