Not cassettes but a dedicated CD player is what I use for this stuff.
I have certain custom mixtape style mood music CDs depending on how the scene in my novel is supposed to feel tonally, for example.
Yes I could make those into YouTube playlists, but the ritual of putting in the right CD has something to say for it, and also my CDs never have advertisements that manage to sneak past all of my layers of adblock, nor do they suddenly decide to be unavailable on one particular day or another.
I remember when I added a CD player to my audio setup a couple of years ago—which previously just had a radio tuner, vinyl turntable and a cassette deck. I kept my old CDs and my partner has even more. I had gotten used to the OK sound quality of vinyl, cassette and FM radio (or youtube on my computer speakers). So when I put the CD in and played it I was amazed how good it sounds, I simply had forgotten how good CD can sound with a good audio setup.
I still play records though, simply because it is more fun, but if I want quality I play CDs.
I have certain custom mixtape style mood music CDs depending on how the scene in my novel is supposed to feel tonally, for example.
Yes I could make those into YouTube playlists, but the ritual of putting in the right CD has something to say for it, and also my CDs never have advertisements that manage to sneak past all of my layers of adblock, nor do they suddenly decide to be unavailable on one particular day or another.