There are no iPods in jail, and there damn sure ain't any Zunes. No CD's either--they're too easy to turn into sharp objects.
What is allowed in jail, musically speaking, is cassette tapes. And that's why L.A.-based Pack Central is a music mail-order operation that, unlike most music firms, has had steady business over the past five years. According to Reuters:
Cassettes account for about 60% of unit sales, since CDs are contraband in many prisons because the hard plastics can be used for nefarious means. The screws that hold many cassettes together are also verboten, so owner Bob Paris must manually remove them. A bigger problem is that the labels have largely abandoned cassettes.
Paris says he started stockpiling cassettes five years ago. "People thought I was nuts when I invested tons of money in analog prerecorded music on tape," he says.
Given the harsh business climate for music retailers, Paris is thrilled that his business has been flat for the last five years, with sales hitting more than $1 million annually.
"I have dodged every conventional bullet that has hit most music retailers," Paris says. "I don't have to worry about downloading, legal or illegally. The beauty of it is that prisoners don't have Internet access and never will."
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Comments
I am kicking myself for not thinking of that when I wrote the post!
Anyone?
Is this thing on?