Music retailer Edels Records announced its merger with Light ‘n’ Sound in 1983 to become the largest independent music retailer in New South Wales. No longer was Edels limited to its flagship stores in the Sydney CBD (Centrepoint and George St), Bankstown, Burwood, Roselands, Blacktown and Top Ryde – it could now boast 25 locations around the state.

The merger announcement is a cue for a low-budget ad spruiking discounts across a range of cassettes and VHS tapes. Much of the product is of the bargain-bin variety: cheap compilation cassettes and ‘Double Deluxe’ cassettes featuring two records in one. ‘Home taping is killing music’ was the recording industry’s mantra, but the practice was commonplace, and blank cassettes, VHS and Beta videotapes were readily available, in common use and included here.

The ad’s insistent, race-caller-style voice-over and large graphics show that the emphasis was very much on the quantity of savings over the quality of the product. But the ad reflects the ubiquity and convenience of cassettes over vinyl, despite their inferior sound quality (and propensity to unspool or damage). It also gives insight into some of the artists that music fans were playing on high rotation in their cars and on their Walkmans that season – Goanna, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Icehouse, John Cougar, the Pointer Sisters and Devo.