If you download a lot of music and hook it up to a file server/NAS, it then kinda is.

Although it will miss the recommendations. For that, you can use ListenBrainz.

I still gotta get a tape player

Sincere question: Why? They sound terrible, and get worse over time. Is there any reason to use them? Aren’t they just generating plastic waste at this point?

The article says:

To me the reasoning is simple, local bands make tapes, it’s easy to put your own music on them, and to share them with friends.

But all of these apply equally to Bandcamp or any other way of sharing digital files, or even CDs (I can’t imagine it’s meaningfully easier to churn out copies of cassettes than CDs).

I suppose, though, that if local bands are making them - whatever their reasons - then that’s reason enough for a listener to use the format. I also guess if people are getting second-hand tapes, then that’s not generating new plastic waste, and there’s probably stuff to that’s not available digitally in any format.

Anyway, I was watching this video recently - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DWtkSVNvTg - and it was quite interesting, but I’ve been wondering since then why people would use tapes.