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drummerboy said:

Tom_Reingold said:
If you still have a CD player, you can play your CDs and not send them to landfill.
I am importing my CDs to a home-built server. It runs Plex software which allows me to listen on my phone anywhere I have internet access, using the Plex app on my phone. IThe Amazon Echo can be taught to work with Plex.

 You know, I've tried to tackle that problem a couple of times over the last few years and got next to nowhere. I'll have to look into Plex.

 I got a Synology server which is beyond amazing. Everything is pretty much plug and play. Well, it is for me, anyway, though I'm a Linux system administrator.

mtierney said:

Tom_Reingold said:
If you still have a CD player, you can play your CDs and not send them to landfill.
I am importing my CDs to a home-built server. It runs Plex software which allows me to listen on my phone anywhere I have internet access, using the Plex app on my phone. IThe Amazon Echo can be taught to work with Plex.

 I am in over my head now! After you have put the songs on Plex, don’t the physical cassettes wind up in a landfill eventually?

 Well yes. I was half joking. As far as disposal goes, your only choices are to keep them or dispose of them. I guess there's a chance you could have the materials recycled, especially if you're willing to dismantle the cassettes.

Tom_Reingold said:

drummerboy said:

Tom_Reingold said:
If you still have a CD player, you can play your CDs and not send them to landfill.
I am importing my CDs to a home-built server. It runs Plex software which allows me to listen on my phone anywhere I have internet access, using the Plex app on my phone. IThe Amazon Echo can be taught to work with Plex.

 You know, I've tried to tackle that problem a couple of times over the last few years and got next to nowhere. I'll have to look into Plex.

 I got a Synology server which is beyond amazing. Everything is pretty much plug and play. Well, it is for me, anyway, though I'm a Linux system administrator.

 Did you take a look at any open source software before choosing PLEX? I'm giving AIRSONIC a try.

drummerboy said:
 Did you take a look at any open source software before choosing PLEX? I'm giving AIRSONIC a try.

 No I didn't, as I was following advice from a friend who uses Plex. I'll take a look. There are a few quirks of Plex I'd like to be rid of.

Tom, my husband was an avid collector for decades. There probably are over 500 cassettes and cds alone. He loved Django Rheinhart, big bands, classical music, jazz, vocalists, Broadway cast recordings, opera, etc. 

what is involve in dismantling?

Tom_Reingold said:

drummerboy said:
 Did you take a look at any open source software before choosing PLEX? I'm giving AIRSONIC a try.

 No I didn't, as I was following advice from a friend who uses Plex. I'll take a look. There are a few quirks of Plex I'd like to be rid of.

 I don't see that Airsonic has Alexa capability though. That would be neat, because I've always been disappointed that I can't access my music library from the Echo.

Are you using the paid version of Plex?

mtierney said:
Tom, my husband was an avid collector for decades. There probably are over 500 cassettes and cds alone. He loved Django Rheinhart, big bands, classical music, jazz, vocalists, Broadway cast recordings, opera, etc. 
what is involve in dismantling?

 Not sure what you mean by dismantling - if you mean digitizing the cassettes and CDs - that's a load of work. CD's are kind of straightforward, but digitizing cassettes would be a chore and a half.

There are services that will do it for you, though I've never used one. One is here. Prices are pretty high - I don't know if these are normal prices or not. 48 audio cassettes for about $700.

@mtierney, cassettes turn out not to be durable. If you tried playing them, the sound may not come through, or it may be degraded. Sorry to say, they may be trash now. As for dismantling them, that's the kind of thing my wife does. Cassettes might be screwed together or just glued together. If the latter, pry it open. Throw out the tape spools and put the plastic in the recycling bin. But it's not clear the recycling company really would recycle them.

@drummerboy, I am using the paid version of Plex though I'm told I didn't need to, especially since I'm using it for audio and not video.

Tom_Reingold said:
@mtierney, cassettes turn out not to be durable. If you tried playing them, the sound may not come through, or it may be degraded. Sorry to say, they may be trash now. As for dismantling them, that's the kind of thing my wife does. Cassettes might be screwed together or just glued together. If the latter, pry it open. Throw out the tape spools and put the plastic in the recycling bin. But it's not clear the recycling company really would recycle them.
@drummerboy, I am using the paid version of Plex though I'm told I didn't need to, especially since I'm using it for audio and not video.

For what it's worth I've found my old cassettes (mostly old rehearsal tapes from an old band) to be pretty durable. I've been slowly digitizing them and I haven't noticed any that have any notable problems (well, apart from it taking forever...)

Oh that's good to hear. I guess my story and the stories I heard are not universal.

Yeah, I have a bunch of cassette tapes from college days, and they still sound ok. They hold up much better than old VHS tapes, for example.