DVDs are out, but audio cassettes are back in mode
Streaming and YouTube have all but killed demand for DVDs, yet an even older format – audio cassettes – have found a niche market. John Dennehy reports
DVD rental stores are struggling but music shops selling cassette tapes appear to be surviving, against the odds, in a digital world in which live streaming dominates entertainment.
A handful of stores cater for fans of film and TV series who are unwilling to give up the chance to sift through boxes to find the film they want.
But the shops face a predictably uncertain future, existing on loyal repeat customers and attracting few, if any, new members. They also struggle to find new stock at a time when a majority of content is screened online.
“In the 1990s, we had many customers,” said Musthafa Kamal, who arrived from Kerala in 1992, when there was a video shop on every street of the city. “But some days now there are no customers.”
His main distributor in Dubai is also going out of business, having relied on a handful of stores that have held out.
Music shops have done better and Khalid Ahmed, owner of Andalib Recording, said he can sell 150 cassettes a month.
They are popular with young people who have fitted out their cars with tape decks. And offroad fans like the fact they do not skip when bashing dunes.
In a time when the latest music and high-definition films can be streamed or downloaded in seconds, you would not expect much demand for the traditional rental business.
But there are a handful of shops scattered across Abu Dhabi city catering to those who still prefer the analogue sound of cassettes or like to browse rows of DVDs.
Behind Madinat Zayed Shopping Centre, in a block of butcher shops, typing offices and restaurants, sits Blue Diamond Video.
Stacks of DVDs are piled on the floors, while on the shelves you can find 1990s American TV shows, Malayalam dramas and Hindi blockbusters. Plastered on the walls are yellowing movie posters for Shrek and Beauty and the Beast.
At Blue Diamond, you can rent a DVD for just Dh10 a night, once you pay the refundable Dh50 deposit, while a Blu-ray costs Dh20. TV shows are particularly popular. But what is the most popular?
“Friends, of course,” says Musthafa Kamal, the shop owner. “That’s the best-seller, along with 24 and Prison
Break. The most popular movies are Indiana Jones and The
Godfather. I don’t buy the new serials as there are no customers. Everyone watches them online these days.”
The video rental business was started by his brother in the 1980s and at one point there were six branches of Blue Diamond Video across the city. Now there is only one.
Mr Kamal arrived from Kerala, India, in 1992 and says that during the heyday of VHS and DVD rental, there was a video shop on every street in the city.
“In the 1990s and 2000s, we had many customers,” he said. “But some days now there are no customers.”
Mr Kamal said that he kept the shop open so long mainly because of its location and the regular customers.
Another problem for Blue Diamond is the difficulty in getting stock. Kamal buys from a distributor in Dubai, but says they are going to close soon.
“They can’t survive with only two or three rental shops operating,” he said. “People have other options now – online streaming and YouTube.”
The Copyright Company on the Corniche also still rents out DVDs, but has branched out into offering graphic novel merchandise. But at Moon Video, in a block off Electra Street, it is a similar story to Blue Diamond.
Owner Vasdev Bhatia says most of his customers are Indian and they rent mainly Malayalam films for Dh10.
Mr Bhatia came to the UAE from Rajasthan, India, about 30 years ago and has been working in video shops ever since. But while he still gets customers every day, he wants to leave the business.
“Someone might offer to buy the shop,” he says. “If I can sell up the shop, I will this year.”
But the business for cassettes does not seem so bleak. At Andalib Recording, an old-school shop at Muroor Road and Dihan Street, at least five people walk in and buy cassettes during a visit there midweek.
Two tape decks sit in a corner where people listen as the sounds of Umm Kulthum fill the air. Khalid Ahmed, the Emirati owner, says he can easily sell 150 cassettes a month.
Cassette players are popular with off-road drivers because tapes do not skip when the vehicle hits a bump. Others just enjoy the album covers.
“They like the physical product and the artwork,” Mr Ahmed says. “Some of the younger customers have tape decks installed in their cars. Others transfer the cassette music on to a flash drive because they like how it sounds.”
It seems the appeal of the cassette speaks to the resurgence in older analogue formats such as vinyl.
Al Balad Audio Cassettes in Madinat Zayed Shopping Centre is another shop in the city still in the business. Owner Abdul Hamid says he still sells tapes every day, but also that older, prized cassettes are being sold on Instagram and Snapchat for up to Dh250.
“Emiratis, Saudis, mainly people from the Gulf,” Mr Hamid says. “There are older cassettes – some 40 years old. It’s like a buy and sell.”
Back at Blue Diamond, Mr Kamal is honest about the future. His comments reflect the parlous future facing DVD rental shops. The shop still has a stock of 25,000 DVDs, but he plans to get out of the business by the end of next year.
“The new generation are not coming,” he says. “Sometimes kids come for cartoons, but I have mainly older customers that return. In the last two to three years, there are no new customers,” he says.
“There is no future, I’m just surviving.”