Rap Cassette Sales Thrive In Prison Market

Danielle Harling

At a time when record sales have decreased dramatically due to downloading the thought of a business thriving off of CD and even cassette sales seems almost absurd, but a business owner in Los Angeles had made what may seem like the impossible possible.

Pack Central, a mail order company owned by Bob Paris, has earned over one million dollars annually for the past few years in CD and cassette sales from its bi-annual catalogue which is sent to prisoners.

Prisoners are able to purchase music from Pack Central through a trust account that is created on their behalf by family members who fund the account and Paris is reaping the benefits.

"I have dodged every conventional bullet that has hit most music retailers," the Pack Central owner told the New York Times. "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."

Since CDs are banned in most prisons, cassette's make up 60% of Pack Central's unit sales and for the past five years Paris has been stocking up on them.

"People thought I was nuts when I invested tons of money in analog prerecorded music on tape," Paris shared.

Pack Central's current best sellers include Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III [click to read], Mariah Carey's E=MC2, Usher's Here I Stand [click to read], and Rihanna's Good Girl Gone Bad.

hiphopdx.com