compact Cassette

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| caption2 = Compact Cassette vs. RCA Tape Cartridge

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After the Second World War, magnetic tape recording technology proliferated across the world. In the United States, Ampex, using equipment obtained in Germany as a starting point, began commercial production of reel-to-reel tape recorders. First used by broadcast studios to pre-record radio programs, tape recorders quickly found their way into schools and homes. By 1953, one million US homes had tape machines,{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|title=Brew Disk-To-Tape Revolution|date=16 September 1953|page=1|url=http://www.archive.org/stream/variety191-1953-09#page/n144/mode/1up|access-date=6 October 2019}} and several major record labels were releasing select titles on prerecorded reel-to-reel tapes.

In 1958, following four years of development, RCA introduced the RCA tape cartridge, which enclosed 60 minutes (30 minutes per side) of stereo quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape within a plastic cartridge that could be utilized on a compatible tape recorder/player without having to thread the tape through the machine.{{cite web|title=RCA Victor Announces Major Break-Through in Recorded Sound|url=http://museumofmagneticsoundrecording.org/images/R2R/vinAd59RCA2.jpg|website=Museum of Magnetic Sound Recording|access-date=December 19, 2024}} This format was not very successful, and RCA discontinued it in 1964.{{cite web|last=Cook|first=Diana|url=http://blog.dianaschnuth.com/details/audio/cartridge.html |title=RCA Cartridges: 1958 - 1964|website=blog.dianaschnuth.com |access-date=December 19, 2024}}

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| caption1 = Operating instructions for the Philips/Norelco Cartridge Tape Carry-Corder 150 (1964)

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| caption2 = One of the first cassette recorders from Philips, the Typ EL 3302 (1968)

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In the early 1960s Philips tasked two different teams to design a high-quality tape cartridge for home use, utilizing thinner and narrower tape compared to what was used in reel-to-reel tape recorders. A team at its Vienna factory, which had experience with dictation machines, developed the Einloch-Kassette, or single-hole cassette with involvement from Grundig.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7eA7AAAAMAAJ|title=Radio Elektronik Schau|year=1965|volume=41|language=de}} At the same time, a team in Hasselt led by Lou Ottens developed a two-hole cassette under the name Pocket Recorder.{{cite news|last=Rothman|first=Lily|title=Rewound: On its 50th birthday, the cassette tape is still rolling|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2148631,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130802030310/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2148631,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 August 2013|magazine=Time|access-date=6 August 2013}}{{cite web|title=Gouden jubileum muziekcassette |url=http://nos.nl/artikel/546117-gouden-jubileum-muziekcassette.html|work=NOS|date=30 August 2013 |access-date=30 December 2013}}{{cite news |url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/02/compact_cassette_supremo_lou_ottens_talks_to_el_reg/?page=1 |title=Compact Cassette supremo Lou Ottens talks to El Reg |date=2 September 2013 |access-date=9 April 2020}}

Philips selected the two-spool cartridge as a winner and introduced the 2-track 2-direction mono version in Europe on 28 August 1963 at the Berlin Radio Show,{{cite book|last=Morton|first=David|title=Sound recording: the life story of a technology|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|date=2004|page=161}}{{cite book|last=Sheperd|first=John|title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World|publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group|date=2003|page=506}}{{Cite magazine|date=4 November 1967|title=Cassette Rampage Forecast|magazine=Billboard|publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|volume=79|issue=44|pages=1, 72|issn=0006-2510}}{{cite magazine|date=8 April 1967|title=European Mfrs. Bid for Market Share|magazine=Billboard |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|volume=79|issue=14|page=18|issn=0006-2510}}{{cite book|last1=Drees|first1=Jan|last2=Vorbau|first2=Christian|title=Kassettendeck: Soundtrack einer Generation|publisher=Klappenbroschur|isbn=978-3821866147|date=23 May 2011}} and in the United States (under the Norelco brand) in November 1964. The same year, mass production of blank compact cassettes began in Hanover. Philips also offered a machine to play and record the cassettes, the Philips Typ EL 3300. An updated model, Typ EL 3301 was offered in the US in November 1964 as Norelco Carry-Corder 150. The trademark name Compact Cassette came a year later.

Following rejection of the Einloch-Kassette, Grundig developed the DC-International (DC standing for "Double Cassette") based on drawings of the Compact Cassette, introducing it in 1965 as companies were competing to establish their format as the worldwide standard.{{cite web|url=https://thegreatbear.net/audio-tape/grundig-c100/|title=Grundig C 100 and the early history of the Compact Cassette|date=7 March 2016}} After yielding to pressure from Sony to license the Compact Cassette format to them free of charge, Philips' format achieved market dominance,{{cite book|last=Nathan|first=John|title=Sony: the Private Life|date=1999|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|page=129|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XZ11jJPKQQC&q=philips+company+cassette+free+licensing&pg=PA129|access-date=8 November 2015|isbn=978-0618126941}} with the DC-International cassette format being discontinued in 1967, just two years after its introduction.

Philips improved on the Compact Cassette's original design to release a stereo version. By 1966 over 250,000 compact cassette recorders had been sold in the US alone and Japanese manufacturers soon became the leading source of recorders. By 1968, 85 manufacturers had sold over 2.4 million mono and stereo units.{{cite book|last=Braun|first=Hans-Joachim|title=Music and technology in the twentieth century|publisher=JHU Press|date=2002|page=161}} By the end of the 1960s, the cassette business was worth an estimated 150 million dollars, and by the early 1970s compact cassette machines were outselling other types of tape machines by a large margin.{{cite book|title=The Dolby stretcher — new boon for tape|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Tape-Recording/60s/Tape-Recording-1970-11-12.pdf|publisher=Tape Recording ##11-12, 1970|page=11}}

Prerecorded music cassettes (also known as Music-Cassettes, and later just Musicassettes) were launched in Europe in late 1965. The Mercury Record Company, a US affiliate of Philips, introduced Musicassettes to the US in July 1966. The initial offering consisted of 49 titles.{{Cite magazine|date=16 July 1966|title=Mercury Issues 49 'Cassettes'|magazine=Billboard |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|volume=78|issue=29|page=69|issn=0006-2510}}

The compact cassette format, however, was initially designed for dictation and portable use, and the audio quality of early players was not well-suited for music. In 1971, the Advent Corporation introduced their Model 201 tape deck that combined Dolby type B noise reduction and chromium(IV) oxide (CrO₂) tape, with a commercial-grade tape transport mechanism supplied by the Wollensak camera division of 3M Corporation. This resulted in the format being taken more seriously for musical use, and started the era of high fidelity cassettes and players.{{Cite book |title=Magnetic Tape Recording |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-442-21774-7 |editor=Marvin Camras}}

British record labels began releasing Musicassettes in October 1967, and they exploded as a mass-market medium after the first Walkman, the TPS-L2, went on sale on 1 July 1979, as cassettes provided portability, which vinyl records could not. While portable radios and boom boxes had been around for some time, the Walkman was the first truly personal portable music player, one that not only allowed users to listen to music away from home, but to do so in private. According to the technology news website The Verge, "the world changed" on the day the TPS-L2 was released.{{cite news |title=Return of the audio cassette |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/mar/29/audio-cassette-comeback |access-date=14 August 2023 |newspaper=The Guardian|date=29 March 2010 |last1=Lynskey |first1=Dorian }}{{cite web |title=40 years ago, the Sony Walkman changed how we listen to music |date=July 2019 |url=https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/1/20677636/sony-walkman-anniversary-tps-l2-cassette-music-player-portable-mp3-evolution |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=The Verge}}{{cite web |title=The first Sony Walkman goes on sale |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-sony-walkman-goes-on-sale |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=History.com}} Stereo tape decks and boom boxes became some of the most highly sought-after consumer products of both decades, as the ability of users to take their music with them anywhere with ease{{cite book|last1=Millard|first1=Andre|chapter=Cassette Tape|date=2013|title=St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture|page=529|edition=2.1}} led to its popularity around the globe.{{Cite journal|title = Digital Compact Cassette|date=1994|volume=82|issue=10|pages = 1479–1489|journal=Proceedings of the IEEE|last = Hoogendoorn|first=A|doi=10.1109/5.326405}}

File:Original Sony Walkman TPS-L2.JPG TPS-L2]]

Like the transistor radio in the 1950s and 1960s, the portable CD player in the 1990s, and the MP3 player in the 2000s, the Walkman defined the portable music market for the decade of the '80s, with cassette sales overtaking those of LPs.{{Cite book |author1=Eric D. Daniel |url=https://archive.org/details/magneticrecordin00eric |title=Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years |author2=C. Dennis Mee |author3=Mark H. Clark |publisher=The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-7803-4709-0}} Total vinyl record sales remained higher well into the 1980s due to greater sales of singles, although cassette singles achieved popularity for a period in the 1990s.{{Cite book|title=Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman|author1=Paul du Gay |author2=Stuart Hall |author3=Linda Janes |author4=Hugh Mackay |author5=Keith Negus |year=1997|publisher=Sage Publications Ltd|isbn= 978-0-7619-5402-6}} Another barrier to cassettes overtaking vinyl in sales was shoplifting; compact cassettes were small enough that a thief could easily place one inside a pocket and walk out of a shop without being noticed. To prevent this, retailers in the US would place cassettes inside oversized "spaghetti box" containers or locked display cases, either of which would significantly inhibit browsing, thus reducing cassette sales.{{cite journal|last=Gans|first=David |title=Packaging Innovations Raise Cassettes' In-store Profile|journal=Record|date=June 1983|volume=2 |issue=8|page=20}}

During the early 1980s some record labels sought to solve this problem by introducing new, larger packages for cassettes which would allow them to be displayed alongside vinyl records and compact discs, or giving them a further market advantage over vinyl by adding bonus tracks. Willem Andriessen wrote that the development in technology allowed "hardware designers to discover and satisfy one of the collective desires of human beings all over the world, independent of region, climate, religion, culture, race, sex, age and education: the desire to enjoy music at any time, at any place, in any desired sound quality and almost at any wanted price".{{cite journal |last=Andriessen|first=Willem|title="THE WINNER": Compact Cassette. A Commercial and Technological Look Back at the Greatest Success Story in the History of Audio Up to Now|journal=Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials|date=1999|volume=193|issue=1–3|pages=12 |doi=10.1016/s0304-8853(98)00502-2}} Critic Robert Palmer, writing in The New York Times in 1981, cited the proliferation of personal stereos as well as extra tracks not available on LP as reasons for the surge in popularity of cassettes.{{cite news |last1=Palmer |first1=Robert |author1-link=Robert Palmer (American writer) |title=The Pop Life; Cassettes Now Have Material Not Available On Disks |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/29/arts/the-pop-life-cassettes-now-have-material-not-available-on-disks.html |access-date=27 April 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=29 July 1981}}

Cassettes' ability to allow users to record content in public also led to a boom in bootleg cassettes made at live shows in the 1980s.{{cite web |date=30 August 2013 |title=Total rewind: 10 key moments in the life of the cassette |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/aug/30/cassette-store-day-music-tapes |access-date=14 August 2023 |newspaper=The Guardian}} The Walkman dominated the decade, selling up to 350 million units. So synonymous did the name "Walkman" become with all portable music players—with a German dictionary at one point defining the term as such without reference to Sony—that the Austrian Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that Sony, which had not sought to have the publisher of that dictionary retract that definition, could not prevent other companies from using that name, as it had now become genericized.{{cite web |title=As Apple kills off the iPod ... here are 5 other pieces of beloved tech we've said goodbye to in the past 20 years |date=16 August 2017 |url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/in-loving-memory-of-the-ipod-and-five-other-pieces-of-beloved-tech-we-ve-killed-off-in-the-past-20-years/ |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=We Forum}}{{cite web |title='Walkman' has become generic, rules Supreme Court |url=https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/article/walkman-has-become-generic-rules-supreme-court |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=World Trademark Review}}{{cite web|url=https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/sony-loses-walkman-trade-mark-as-too-generic|publisher=Pinsent Masons|title=Sony loses Walkman trade mark as too generic|date=5 June 2002|access-date=12 August 2023}} As a result of this, a number of Sony's competitors produced their own version of the Walkman. Others made their own branded tape players, like JVC, Panasonic, Sharp, and Aiwa, the second-largest producer of the devices.{{cite web |title=Rewind! A guide to the best portable cassette players |date=24 March 2017 |url=https://thevinylfactory.com/features/the-8-best-portable-cassette-players/ |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=The Vinyl Factory}}

Between 1985, when cassettes overtook vinyl, and 1992, when they were overtaken by CDs{{Failed verification|date=October 2024|reason=The history.com source provides no information about its popularity in relation to vinyl or CDs}} (introduced in 1983 as a format that offered greater storage capacity and more accurate sound),{{cite web |title=In a digital age, vinyl's making a comeback |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-apr-26-et-vinyl26-story.html |access-date=14 August 2023 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=26 April 2009 }}{{Failed verification|date=October 2024|reason=Source does not contain information about CDs benefits against cassette, however it does mention the introduction of CDs in 1983}} the cassette tape was the most popular format in the United States and the UK. Record labels experimented with innovative packaging designs. A designer during the era explained: "There was so much money in the industry at the time, we could try anything with design." The introduction of the cassette single, called a "cassingle", was also part of this era and featured a music single in Compact Cassette form. Until 2005, cassettes remained the dominant medium for purchasing and listening to music in some developing countries, but compact disc (CD) technology had superseded the Compact Cassette in the vast majority of music markets throughout the world by this time.{{Cite news|title=Not long left for cassette tapes|publisher=BBC|date=17 June 2005|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4099904.stm|access-date=13 September 2006}}{{cite news|title=Total rewind: 10 key moments in the life of the cassette|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/aug/30/cassette-store-day-music-tapes|access-date=17 March 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 August 2013|author=Jude Rogers | author-link = Jude Rogers}}

{{further|Cassette culture}}

Compact cassettes served as catalysts for social change. Their small size, durability and ease of copying helped bring underground rock and punk music behind the Iron Curtain, creating a foothold for Western culture among the younger generations.{{Cite book|author=Robin James|title=Cassette Mythos |isbn=978-0-936756-69-1|year=1992|publisher=Autonomedia|location=Brooklyn, NY}} Likewise, in Egypt cassettes empowered an unprecedented number of people to create culture, circulate information, and challenge ruling regimes before the internet became publicly accessible.{{Cite book |last=Simon |first=Andrew |url=https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=31649 |title=Media of the Masses: Cassette Culture in Modern Egypt |date=2022 |publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-1-5036-2943-1 |location=Stanford}}

File:Cassettes at a Cairo Kiosk.jpg

One of the political uses of cassette tapes was the dissemination of sermons by the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini throughout Iran before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, in which Khomeini urged the overthrow of the regime of the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.{{cite book|page=[https://archive.org/details/assimilatecritic0000reed/page/113 113]|title=Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music|author=S. Alexander Reed|isbn=978-0199832606|year=2013|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://archive.org/details/assimilatecritic0000reed/page/113}} During the military dictatorship of Chile (1973–1990) a "cassette culture" emerged where blacklisted music or music that was by other reasons not available as records was shared.{{Cite book|title=The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture|last=Jordán González|first=Laura|publisher=SAGE Publications|year=2019|isbn=978-1-4833-1775-5|pages=509–511|editor-last=Sturman|editor-first=Janet|chapter=Chile: Modern and Contemporary Performance Practice}}{{Cite journal|title=Música y clandestinidad en dictadura: la represión, la circulación de músicas de resistencia y el casete clandestino|journal=Revista Musical Chilena|url=https://scielo.conicyt.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0716-27902009000200006|last=Jordán|first=Laura|year=2009|volume=63|pages=212|issue=Julio-Diciembre|doi=10.4067/S0716-27902009000200006|language=es|trans-title=Music and "clandestinidad" During the Time of the Chilean Dictatorship: Repression and the Circulation of Music of Resistance and Clandestine Cassettes|doi-access=free}}{{Cite journal|title=Etnografía de la música mexicana en Chile: Estudio de caso|journal=Revista Electrónica de Divulgación de la Investigación|last1=Montoya Arias|first1=Luis Omar|date=12 September 2017|pages=1–20|last2=Díaz Güemez|first2=Marco Aurelio|language=es|volume=14}} Some pirate cassette producers created brands such as Cumbre y Cuatro that have in retrospect received praise for their contributions to popular music. Armed groups such as Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front (FPMR) and the Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) made use of cassettes to spread their messages.

Cassette technology was a booming market for pop music in India, drawing criticism from conservatives while at the same time creating a huge market for legitimate recording companies, as well as pirated tapes.{{Cite book |author=Peter Manuel |title=Cassette Culture: Popular Music and Technology in North India |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-226-50401-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/cassetteculturep00manu }} Some sales channels were associated with cassettes: in Spain filling stations often featured a display selling cassettes. While offering also mainstream music these cassettes became associated with genres such as Gipsy rhumba, light music and joke tapes that were common in the 1970s and 1980s.{{cite news |last1=Arenas |first1=Guillermo |title=Las cintas de casete pasan de la gasolinera a la Biblioteca Nacional |url=https://retina.elpais.com/retina/2019/08/13/tendencias/1565685637_246147.html |newspaper=El País |access-date=23 May 2020 |language=es |date=16 August 2019}}

Despite sales of CDs overtaking those of prerecorded cassettes in the early 1990s in the U.S.,{{cite web |title=U.S. Sales Database |url=https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/ |website=RIAA |access-date=19 October 2022}} the format remained popular for specific applications, such as car audio, personal stereos, boomboxes, telephone answering machines, dictation, field recording, home recording, and mixtapes well into the decade. Cassette players were typically more resistant to shocks than CD players, and their lower fidelity was not considered a serious drawback in mobile use. With the introduction of electronic skip protection it became possible to use portable CD players on the go, and automotive CD players became viable. CD-R drives and media also became affordable for consumers around the same time.{{cite web |title=1995: Consumer CD-R Drive Priced Below $1000 |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/storageengine/consumer-cd-r-drive-priced-below-1000/ |website=Computer History Museum |access-date=23 January 2022}}

By 1993, annual shipments of CD players had reached 5 million, up 21% from the year before; while cassette player shipments had dropped 7% to approximately 3.4 million.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Record and prerecorded tape stores|encyclopedia=Gale Encyclopedia of American Industries|year=2005|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/record-and-prerecorded-tape-stores|access-date=20 September 2006}} Sales of pre-recorded music cassettes in the US dropped from 442 million in 1990 to 274,000 by 2007.{{cite magazine|title=Tape Echo: Specialty labels keep cassettes alive |magazine=Billboard |url=http://www.lostsoundtapes.com/files/billboard_magazine.jpg |date=11 October 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225121218/http://www.lostsoundtapes.com/files/billboard_magazine.jpg |archive-date=25 February 2009 }} For audiobooks, the final year that cassettes represented more than 50% of total market sales was 2002 when they were replaced by CDs as the dominant media.[http://www.audiopub.org/LinkedFiles/APA_Fact_Sheet.pdf Audio Publishers Association Fact Sheet] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101026033037/http://www.audiopub.org/LinkedFiles/APA_Fact_Sheet.pdf |date=26 October 2010 }} (also includes some historical perspective in the 1950s by Marianne Roney)

The last new car with an available cassette player was a 2014 TagAZ AQUiLA.{{Cite news|title=Tagaz Aquila|language=Russian|newspaper=Wroom.ru|url=https://wroom.ru/cars/tagaz/aquila|access-date=26 January 2021}} Four years prior, Sony had stopped the production of personal cassette players.{{cite web|title=Sony kills the cassette Walkman on the iPod's birthday|date=23 October 2010 |url=https://gizmodo.com/sony-kills-the-cassette-walkman-on-the-ipods-birthday-5671670|access-date=19 October 2020}} In 2011, the Oxford English Dictionary removed the phrase "cassette player" from its 12th edition Concise version,{{cite encyclopedia | url=http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/11/reports-of-the-death-of-the-cassette-tape-are-greatly-exaggerated/ | access-date=28 January 2015 | dictionary=Oxford English Dictionary | first=Ammon | last=Shea | title=Reports of the death of the cassette tape are greatly exaggerated | date=10 November 2011 | archive-date=12 May 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512113109/http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2011/11/reports-of-the-death-of-the-cassette-tape-are-greatly-exaggerated/ | url-status=dead }} which prompted some media sources to mistakenly report that the term "cassette tape" was being removed.{{cite news| url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/22/cassette-tapes-removal-from-dictionary_n_932107.html | work=Huffington Post | first=David | last=Moye | title=Oxford Dictionary Removes 'Cassette Tape,' Gets Sound Lashing From Audiophiles | date=22 August 2011}}

In India, music continued to be released on the cassette format due to its low cost until 2009.{{cite book|author=Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita|title=The Indian Media Business|edition=4|location=New Delhi|publisher=Sage India|date=2013|pages=184–90|isbn=9788132118015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tRdBDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT184|via=Google Books|accessdate=26 July 2022}}

File:Burmese music casette tapes, Yangon, Myanmar.jpg, Myanmar (2006)]]

Although portable digital recorders are most common today, analog tape remains a desirable option for certain artists and consumers.{{Cite journal |last=Segal |first=Dave |date=9 March 2016 |title=Baby, I'm for Reel: Unspooling the Affordable, Accessible Microeconomy of the Cassette Revival |journal=The Stranger |url=http://www.thestranger.com/music/2016/03/09/23679384/baby-im-for-reel-unspooling-the-affordable-accessible-microeconomy-of-the-cassette-revival |access-date=11 March 2016 }} Underground and DIY communities release regularly, and sometimes exclusively, on cassette format, particularly in experimental music circles and to a lesser extent in hardcore punk, death metal, and black metal circles, out of a fondness for the format. Even among major-label stars, the form has at least one devotee: Thurston Moore stated in 2009, "I only listen to cassettes."{{cite web |url=http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7764-this-is-not-a-mixtape/ |title=Articles: This Is Not a Mixtape |website=Pitchfork |date=22 February 2010 |access-date=20 August 2010 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054958/http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7764-this-is-not-a-mixtape/ |url-status=dead }} By 2019, few companies still made cassettes. Among those are National Audio Company, from the US, and Mulann, also known as Recording The Masters, from France.{{cite web|url=https://www.thelocal.fr/20190322/french-firm-opens-factory-making-first-cassettes-since-1990s-after-artists-like-taylor-swift-go-for-retro-tapes|title=French firm opens factory making first cassettes since 1990s after artists like Taylor Swift go retro|date=22 March 2019 |access-date= 22 November 2021}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2019/04/22/springfield-audiocassettes-business-national-audio-company-cassette-making/3501329002/|title = National Audio Company now has a cassette-making competitor. They're in France}}

Sony announced the end of cassette Walkman production on 22 October 2010,{{cite web |title=End Of An Era: Sony Stops Manufacturing Cassette Walkmans |date=22 October 2010 |url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/10/22/an-era-ends-sony-stops-manufacturing-cassette-walkmans/ |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=Tech Crunch}} a result of the emergence of MP3 players such as Apple's iPod.{{cite web |date=26 October 2010 |title=Original Walkman is RiP (replaced by iPod) |url=https://www.theledger.com/story/news/2010/10/26/original-walkman-is-rip-replaced/8000661007/ |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher= |language=en-US |via=}} As of 2022, Sony uses the Walkman brand solely for its line of digital media players.{{cite web |date=10 March 2022 |title=Do You Still Love the Walkman? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/10/technology/walkman-nostalgia.html |access-date=14 August 2023 |newspaper=The New York Times}}

In 2010, Botswana-based Diamond Studios announced plans{{cite web|url=http://allafrica.com/stories/201004190264.html|title=Zimbabwe: Diamond Studios to Commission Cassette Plant|first=Ruth|last=Butaumocho|date=19 April 2010|access-date=1 January 2017|via=AllAfrica}} for establishing a plant to mass-produce cassettes in a bid to combat piracy. It opened in 2011.{{cite news |first = Robyn |last = Curnow |title = Pause and Rewind: Zimbabwe's Audio Cassette Boom | date = 7 June 2011 | url = http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/06/07/cassette.culture.zimbabwe/index.html | work = CNN |access-date = 13 July 2011}}

In South Korea, the early English education boom for toddlers encourages a continuous demand for English language cassettes, {{as of|2011|lc=y|post=,}} due to the affordable cost.{{cite news|first=Yeon-jin (연진) |last=Choi (최) |script-title=ko:멸종 중인 카세트, 한국선 '장수 만세 |date=31 May 2011 |url=http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/economy/201105/h2011053102312221540.htm |work=Hankook Ilbo |access-date=13 July 2011 |language=ko |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110814081328/http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/economy/201105/h2011053102312221540.htm |archive-date=14 August 2011 }}

National Audio Company in Missouri, the largest of the few remaining manufacturers of audio cassettes in the US, oversaw the mass production of the "Awesome Mix #1" cassette from the film Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014.{{Cite web|title = Meet The Owner Of America's Last Awesome Cassette Tape Factory|url = https://www.slantnews.com/story/2015-09-16-meet-the-owner-of-americas-last-awesome-cassette-tape-factory|website=Slant|access-date = 4 June 2017|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419090228/https://www.slantnews.com/story/2015-09-16-meet-the-owner-of-americas-last-awesome-cassette-tape-factory|archive-date=19 April 2016}} They reported that they had produced more than 10 million tapes in 2014 and that sales were up 20 percent the following year, their best year since they opened in 1969.{{cite news|title=This Company Is Still Making Audio Cassettes and Sales Are Better Than Ever |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-01/this-company-is-still-making-audio-cassettes-and-sales-are-better-than-ever |access-date=9 September 2015|author=Jeniece Pettitt|newspaper=Bloomberg.com |date=1 September 2015}} In 2016, cassette sales in the United States rose by 74% to 129,000.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/chart-beat/7662572/us-cassette-album-sales-increase-2016-guardians|title=U.S. Cassette Album Sales Increased by 74% in 2016, Led by 'Guardians' Soundtrack|magazine=Billboard|date=21 January 2017}} In 2018, following several years of shortage, National Audio Company began producing their own magnetic tape, becoming the world's first known manufacturer of an all-new tape stock.{{cite web|title=The world was running out of cassette tape. Now it's being made in Springfield.|url=https://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2018/01/07/world-running-out-cassette-tape-now-its-being-made-springfield/852739001/|work=Springfield News-Leader|access-date=24 April 2018|date=7 January 2018}} Mulann, a company which acquired Pyral/RMGI in 2015 and originates from BASF, also started production of its new cassette tape stock in 2018, basing on reel tape formula.{{cite web|title=Audio cassettes are produced again!|url=https://www.recordingthemasters.com/2018/10/11/audio-cassettes-are-produced-again/|work=Mulann S.A.|access-date=6 May 2020|date=11 October 2018|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727075845/https://www.recordingthemasters.com/2018/10/11/audio-cassettes-are-produced-again/|url-status=dead}}

In Japan and South Korea, the pop acts Seiko Matsuda,{{cite web |url=http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/UPSH-89001 |title=Eien no Motto Hate Made / Wakusei ni Naritai [Cassette Tape] [Limited Edition / Type C] |website=CDJapan }}, CD Japan. Retrieved 13 June 2018 SHINee,{{cite web |url=https://www.yesasia.com/global/shinee-vol-5-1-of-1-cassette-tape-limited-edition/1053520608-0-0-0-en/info.html |title=SHINee Vol. 5 - 1 of 1 (Cassette Tape Limited Edition)}}, YesAsia. Retrieved 13 June 2018 and NCT 127 released their material on limited-run cassettes.{{cite web |url=http://tower.jp/item/4710517/Chain-%5b%E3%82%B9%E3%83%9E%E3%83%97%E3%83%A9%E4%BB%98%5d%EF%BC%9C%E5%88%9D%E5%9B%9E%E7%94%9F%E7%94%A3%E9%99%90%E5%AE%9A%E7%9B%A4%EF%BC%9E |title=【カセットテープ】 Chain ［スマプラ付］＜初回生産限定盤＞]}}, Tower Records Japan. Retrieved 13 June 2018 In Reiwa era Japan, the revived popularity of cassette tapes is an example of Showa retro.[https://chuokoron.jp/culture/125070.html 昭和レトロはどこへ行く――令和の若者にウケるわけ]. Chūō Kōron. 10 May 2024.[https://ascii.jp/elem/000/004/089/4089087/ カセットテープ再ブーム時代に「カセットテープ型2.5インチドライブケース」を衝動買い]. ASCII.14 April 2022. As of 2021, Maxell was selling 8 million cassette tapes per year in Japan.[https://www.vice.com/en/article/cassette-tapes-comeback-trend-japan-nostalgia-gen-z-music-fashion/ Cassette Tapes Are Making a Comeback in Japan]. Vice. 10 February 2021.

In the mid-to-late 2010s, cassette sales saw a modest resurgence concurrent with the vinyl revival. As early as 2015, the retail chain Urban Outfitters, which had long sold LPs, started selling new pre-recorded cassettes (both new and old albums), blank cassettes, and players.{{cite web |url=http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/category.jsp?id=MUSIC-CASSETTES#/ |title=Cassettes|accessdate=30 July 2016|archivedate=27 November 2015|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20151127102342/https://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/category.jsp?id=MUSIC-CASSETTES#/}} In 2016, cassette sales increased,{{cite web |url=https://thevinylfactory.com/news/cassette-album-sales-rise-74-2016/ |title=Cassette sales increased by 74% in 2016|date=23 January 2017}} The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved 26 October 2018 a trend that continued in 2017{{cite web |url=https://thevinylfactory.com/news/cassette-sales-2017/ |title=Cassette sales grew 35% in 2017|date=5 January 2018}} The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved 26 October 2018 and 2018.{{cite web |url=https://thevinylfactory.com/news/uk-cassette-sales-grew-90-percent-first-half-2018/ |title=UK cassette sales grew by 90% in first half of 2018|date=26 July 2018}} The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved 26 October 2018 In the UK, sales of cassette tapes in 2021 reached its highest number since 2003.{{Cite web |title=Let's get physical: new BPI report shows vinyl & cassettes sales surge, decline of the CD slows |url=https://www.musicweek.com/labels/read/let-s-get-physical-new-bpi-report-shows-vinyl-cassettes-sales-surge-decline-of-the-cd-slows/084895 |access-date=14 September 2022 |website=MusicWeek.com }}

Cassettes are favored by some artists and listeners, including those of older genres of music such as dansband,{{cite web |title=Vad händer med dansbandsutgivningen när Bert säljer? |url=http://www.dansbandsbloggen.se/2006/05/vad-hnder-med-dansbandsutgivningen-nr.html |access-date=14 August 2023 |archive-date=20 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100820082718/http://www.dansbandsbloggen.se/2006/05/vad-hnder-med-dansbandsutgivningen-nr.html |url-status=dead }} as well as independent and underground artists,{{cite web |title=This Is Not a Mixtape |date=22 February 2010 |url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/7764-this-is-not-a-mixtape/ |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=Pitchfork}} some of whom were releasing new music on tape by the 2020s, including Britney Spears and Busta Rhymes.{{cite web |title=Popular/Major Releases on Cassette [2021 NEW] |url=https://www.discogs.com/lists/PopularMajor-Releases-on-Cassette-2021-NEW/728533 |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=Discogs}} Reasons cited for this include tradition, low cost, the DIY ease of use,{{cite web |title=Baby, I'm for Reel: Unspooling the Affordable, Accessible Microeconomy of the Cassette Revival |url=https://www.thestranger.com/music/2016/03/09/23679384/baby-im-for-reel-unspooling-the-affordable-accessible-microeconomy-of-the-cassette-revival |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=TheStranger}} and a nostalgic fondness for how the format's imperfections lend greater vibrancy to low-fi, experimental music, despite the lack of the "full-bodied richness" of vinyl.

File:Cassette Write Protect IV.jpg

{{further|Compact Cassette tape types and formulations}}

Cassette tapes are made of a polyester-type plastic film with a magnetic coating. The original magnetic material was based on gamma ferric oxide (Fe₂O₃). {{circa|1970}}, 3M Company developed a cobalt volume-doping process combined with a double-coating technique to enhance overall tape output levels. This product was marketed as "High Energy" under its Scotch brand of recording tapes.{{cite web |title=History of Compact Cassette |url=http://vintagecassettes.com/_history/history.htm |access-date=4 June 2012}} Inexpensive cassettes commonly are labeled "low-noise", but typically are not optimized for high frequency response. For this reason, some low-grade IEC Type I tapes have been marketed specifically as better suited for data storage than for sound recording.{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}

In 1968,{{cite journal |last=Canby |first=Tatnall |year=1968 |title=CrO2 - Tomorrow's Tape |journal=Studio Sound |issue=5 |pages=239}} DuPont, the inventor of a chromium dioxide (CrO₂) manufacturing process, began commercialization of CrO₂ media. The first CrO₂ cassette was introduced in 1970 by Advent,{{cite journal |last=Stark |first=Craig |year=1992 |title=Choosing the Right Tape |journal=Stereo Review |issue=March |pages=45–48}} and later strongly backed by BASF, the inventor and longtime manufacturer of magnetic recording tape.{{Cite book |author1=Werner Abelshauser |url=https://archive.org/details/germanindustrygl00wern/page/585 |title=German Industry and Global Enterprise: BASF: The History of a Company |author2=Wolfgang von Hippel |author3=Jeffrey Allan Johnson |author4=Raymond G. Stokes |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-521-82726-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/germanindustrygl00wern/page/585 585]}} Next, coatings using magnetite (Fe₃O₄) such as TDK's Audua were produced in an attempt to approach or exceed the sound quality of vinyl records. Cobalt-adsorbed iron oxide (Avilyn) was introduced by TDK in 1974 and proved very successful. "Type IV" tapes using pure metal particles (as opposed to oxide formulations) were introduced in 1979 by 3M under the trade name Metafine. The tape coating on most cassettes sold as of 2024 are either "normal" or "chrome" consists of ferric oxide and cobalt mixed in varying ratios (and using various processes); there are very few cassettes on the market that use a pure (CrO₂) coating.

Simple voice recorders and earlier cassette decks are designed to work with standard ferric formulations. Newer tape decks usually are built with switches and later detectors for the different bias and equalization requirements for higher grade tapes. The most common are iron oxide tapes (as defined by the IEC 60094 standard).

Notches on top of the cassette shell indicate the type of tape. Type I cassettes have only write-protect notches, Type II have an additional pair next to the write protection ones, and Type IV (metal) have a third set near the middle of the top of the cassette shell. These allow later cassette decks to detect the tape type automatically and select the proper bias and equalization.{{Cite web |title=Which Type of Audio Cassette Tape is Right for You : Type 1, 2 or 4 ? - Cassette Player Culture |url=https://www.cassette-player.com/right-audio-cassette-tape-for-you |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240702081211/https://www.cassette-player.com/right-audio-cassette-tape-for-you |archive-date=2024-07-02 |access-date=2024-07-02 |website=cassette-player.com }}

File:Visualisierung der magnetisch gespeicherten Informationen auf einer Stereo-Audiokassette (Aufgenommen mit CMOS-MagView)..jpg

The cassette was the next step following reel-to-reel audio tape recording, although, because of the limitations of the cassette's size and speed, it initially compared poorly in quality. Unlike the 4-track stereo open-reel format, the two stereo tracks of each side lie adjacent to each other, rather than being interleaved with the tracks of the other side. This permitted monaural cassette players to play stereo recordings "summed" as mono tracks and permitted stereo players to play mono recordings through both speakers. The tape is {{convert|0.15|in|mm|sigfig=3|abbr=on}} wide, with each mono track {{convert|1.5|mm|in|sigfig=2}} wide, plus an unrecorded guard band between each track. In stereo, each track is further divided into a left and a right channel of {{cvt|0.6|mm|in|sigfig=2}} each, with a gap of {{cvt|0.3|mm|in|sigfig=2}}.{{cite journal |url=http://www.extra.research.philips.com/hera/people/aarts/_Philips%20Bound%20Archive/PTechReview/PTechReview-31-1970-077.pdf |title=Audio tape cassettes |journal=Philips Technical Review |first1=P. |last1=van der Lely |first2=G. |last2=Missriegler |volume=31 |issue=3 |page=85 |date=1970 |access-date=3 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181110131544/http://www.extra.research.philips.com/hera/people/aarts/_Philips%20Bound%20Archive/PTechReview/PTechReview-31-1970-077.pdf |archive-date=10 November 2018 |url-status=dead }} The tape moves past the playback head at {{convert|1+7/8|in/s|cm/s|2}}, the speed being a continuation of the increasingly slower speed series in open-reel machines operating at 30, 15, {{frac|7|1|2}}, or {{frac|3|3|4}} inches per second.{{cite web |url=http://legacyproducts.tdk.com/support/pdfs/d.pdf |publisher=TDK |type=spec sheet |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070620193131/http://legacyproducts.tdk.com/support/pdfs/d.pdf |archive-date=20 June 2007 |title=D NORMAL-BIAS AUDIO TAPES |access-date=4 April 2019}} For comparison, the typical open-reel {{frac|1|4}}-inch 4-track consumer format used tape that is {{convert|0.248|in|mm|1}} wide, each track {{convert|.043|in|mm|1|abbr=on}} wide, and running at either twice or four times the speed of a cassette.{{citation needed|date=July 2022}}

Very simple cassette recorders for dictation purposes did not tightly control tape speed and relied on playback on a similar device to maintain intelligible recordings. For accurate reproduction of music, a tape transport incorporating a capstan and pinch roller system was used, to ensure tape passed over the record/playback heads at a constant speed.

If the cassette is held with one of the labels facing the user and the tape opening at the bottom, the write-protect notch for the corresponding side is at the top-left.

{{anchor|tapelength}}

File:Maxell compact cassette boxes, 60 and 90 minutes.jpg

Tape length usually is measured in minutes of total playing time. Many of the varieties of blank tape were C60 (30 minutes per side), C90 (45 minutes per side) and C120 (60 minutes per side). Maxell makes 150-minute cassettes (UR-150) - 75 minutes per side. The C46 and C60 lengths typically are {{convert|15|to|16|μm|mil|abbr=off|sp=us}} thick, but C90s are {{convert|10|to|11|μm|mil|abbr=on|sp=us}}{{Cite web|url=http://en.wikiaudio.org/Audio_tape_length_and_thickness|title=Audio tape length and thickness|website=en.wikiaudio.org|language=en|access-date=16 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317035749/http://en.wikiaudio.org/Audio_tape_length_and_thickness|archive-date=17 March 2018|url-status=dead}} and (the less common) C120s are just {{convert|6|μm|mil|abbr=on|sp=us}} thick,{{Cite web|url=http://nactape.com/anablog/glossary|title=NAC Audio Cassette Glossary – Cassetro|website=nactape.com|language=en-US|access-date=16 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316214327/http://nactape.com/anablog/glossary|archive-date=16 March 2018|url-status=dead}} rendering them more susceptible to stretching or breakage. Even C180 tapes were available at one point.{{cite web|title=VintageCassettes.com|url=http://www.vintagecassettes.com|access-date=26 September 2011}}

Other lengths are (or were) also available from some vendors, including C10, C12 and C15 (useful for saving data from early home computers and in telephone answering machines), C30, C40, C50, C54, C64, C70, C74, C80, C84, C94, C100, C105, C110, and C150. As late as 2010, Thomann still offered C10, C20, C30 and C40 IEC Type II tape cassettes for use with 4- and 8-track portastudios.{{cite web |title=Compact Cassettes |publisher=Thomann U.K. International Cyperstore |url=http://www.thomann.de/gb/compact_cassettes.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100811024556/http://www.thomann.de/gb/compact_cassettes.html |archive-date=11 August 2010 |access-date=22 October 2010 }}

The full tape width is 3.8 mm. For mono recording the track width is 1.5 mm. In stereo mode each channel has width of 0.6 mm with a 0.3 mm separation to avoid crosstalk.{{cite web|title=Happy 50th birthday, Compact Cassette: How it struck a chord for millions

|website=The Register|date=30 August 2013|access-date=29 April 2016|pages=2|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/30/50_years_of_the_compact_cassette/?page=2

|quote=In a mono arrangement, each track is 1.5mm per side across the 3.8mm tape width. For stereo, the left and right tracks are only 0.6mm apiece, with 0.3mm separation to avoid crosstalk.}}

The head-gap width{{clarify|reason=is this a typical value? A standard value? Something originally spec'd by Philips? Just stating that it "is" is problematic, esp when we go on to say that sometimes it's markedly narrower|date=March 2018}} is 2 μm{{according to whom|date=March 2018}} which gives a theoretical maximum frequency{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} of about 12 kHz (at the standard speed of 1 7/8 ips or 4.76 cm/s). A narrower gap would give a higher frequency limit but also weaker magnetization.

Cassette tape adapters allow external audio sources to be played back from any tape player, but were typically used for car audio systems. An attached audio cable with a phone connector converts the electrical signals to be read by the tape head, while mechanical gears simulate reel to reel movement without actual tapes when driven by the player mechanism.[https://youtube.com/watch?v=dH4n8fUjtLQ Cassette adapters are remarkably simple]

File:Compact_Cassette_BASF_SM_Security_Mechanism_guided_tape_IMG_8286.JPG

In order to wind up the tape more reliably, the former BASF (from 1998 EMTEC) patented the Special Mechanism or Security Mechanism advertised with the abbreviation SM in the early 1970s, which was temporarily used under license by Agfa. This feature each includes a rail to guide the tape to the spool and prevent an unclean roll from forming.[https://patents.google.com/patent/EP0078997A2 Patent EP 0078997 A2 – Bandkassette mit einem Aufzeichnungsträger mit Magnetspur und Echolöscheinrichtungen für solche Bandkassetten], eingetragen am 28. Oktober 1982

Magnetic tape is not an ideal medium for long-term archival storage, as it begins to degrade after 10 – 20 years, with some experts estimating its lifespan to be no more than 30 years.{{cite web |last=Pogue |first=David |author-link=David Pogue |url=https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/digitize-those-memory-filled-cassettes-before-they-disintegrate/ |magazine=Scientific American |title=Digitize Those Memory-Filled Cassettes before They Disintegrate |url-status=live |date=1 September 2016 |access-date=12 August 2023 |archive-date=12 August 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230812194200/https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/digitize-those-memory-filled-cassettes-before-they-disintegrate/ }}{{cite web|url=https://legacybox.com/blogs/analog/history-of-the-cassette-tape |publisher=Legacy Box |title=History of the Cassette Tape |last=Somerfield |first=Katy |access-date=12 August 2023 |archive-date=12 August 2023 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230812194210/https://legacybox.com/blogs/analog/history-of-the-cassette-tape }}

A common mechanical problem occurs when a defective player or resistance in the tape path causes insufficient tension on the take-up spool. This would cause the magnetic tape to be fed out through the bottom of the cassette and become tangled in the mechanism of the player. In these cases, the player was said to have "eaten" or "chewed" the tape, often destroying the playability of the cassette.{{cite web|url=http://beradio.com/mag/radio_trends_technology_recording/|title=Trends in Technology: Recording Sound |first=Steve |last=Fluker |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040923212542/http://beradio.com/mag/radio_trends_technology_recording/ |archive-date=23 September 2004}}{{failed verification|reason=eating is mentioned as a bane but the exact cause is not explained. See also Talk:Cassette tape#chewing hides the sound|date=August 2021}}

{{Main|Cassette deck}}

{{See also|Loop bin duplicator}}

File:Ba-avk-slavich-2001-tapematic.jpg

The first cassette machines (e.g. the Philips EL 3300, introduced in August 1963{{cite web|url=http://www.philipsmuseumeindhoven.nl/phe/products/e_cc.htm |title=Philips Compact Cassette |publisher=Philips Museum |access-date=20 August 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100711152039/http://www.philipsmuseumeindhoven.nl/phe/products/e_cc.htm |archive-date=11 July 2010 }})

File:Nakamichi RX 505 Front edited.jpg RX-505 cassette deck. It has an auto-reverse feature that rotates the cassette, hence the bump in the middle.]]

One innovation was the front-loading arrangement. Pioneer's angled cassette bay and the exposed bays of some Sansui models eventually were standardized as a front-loading door into which a cassette would be loaded. Later models would adopt electronic buttons, and replace conventional meters (which could be driven over full scale when overloaded, a condition called "pegging the needle" or simply "pegging") with electronic LED or vacuum fluorescent displays, with level controls typically being controlled by either rotary controls or side-by-side sliders. BIC and Marantz briefly offered models that could be run at double speeds, but Nakamichi was widely recognized as one of the first companies to create decks that rivaled reel-to-reel decks with full 20–20,000 Hz frequency response, low noise, and very low wow and flutter.{{cite web|title=40 years of Stereophile: The Hot 100 Products |url=http://www.stereophile.com/features/709/|author=John Atkinson|date=November 2002|access-date=13 September 2006}}{{cite web|title=Olde Worlde – Nakamichi CR-7E Cassette Deck |url=http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/hfw/oldeworldehtml/nakamichicr7e.html |author=David Price |date=January 2000 |access-date=13 September 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060821203427/http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk/hfw/oldeworldehtml/nakamichicr7e.html |archive-date=21 August 2006 }}

Different interpretations of the cassette standard resulted in a 4 dB ambiguity at 16 kHz. Technically, both camps in this debate were still within the original cassette specification as no tolerance for frequency response is provided above 12.5 kHz and all calibration tones above 12.5 kHz are considered optional.{{cite web |last=Hess |first=Richard |title=Cassette Equalization: The 4 dB ambiguity at 16 kHz |url=http://richardhess.com/notes/2006/05/17/cassette-equalization-the-4-db-ambiguity-at-16-khz/|access-date=16 October 2012|date=May 2006}}{{cite web|last=Hess|first=Richard|title=Cassette equalization redo|url=http://richardhess.com/notes/2010/10/08/cassette-equalization-redo/|access-date=16 October 2012|date=October 2010}} Decreasing noise at 16 kHz also decreases the maximum signal level at 16 kHz, the High-Frequency Dynamics stay almost constant.{{cite web |first= Arndt |last= Klingelnberg |date= May 1979 |url= http://www.theimann.com/Analog/Misc_Tech/Aussteuern/index.html |publisher= Aussteuerungsprobleme |title= HiFi-Stereophonie}}

A third company, Bang & Olufsen of Denmark, created the Dolby HX "head room extension" system for reliably reducing tape saturation effects at high frequencies while maintaining higher bias levels.Arndt Klingelnberg (1990 March) [http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=5782 AES No. 2912 Some Not Well Known Aspects of Analog Tape concerning dynamic bias (Dolby HX-PRO)]

File:Ghettoblaster-family.jpges]]

Note the upper-left which has a built-in CRT television for receiving analog television broadcasts]]

Applications for car stereos varied widely. Auto manufacturers in the US typically would fit a cassette slot into their standard large radio faceplates. Europe and Asia would standardize on DIN and double DIN sized faceplates. In the 1980s, a high-end installation would have a Dolby AM/FM cassette deck, and they rendered the 8-track player obsolete in car installations because of space, performance, and audio quality. In the 1990s and 2000s, as the cost of building CD players declined, many manufacturers offered a CD player. The CD player eventually supplanted the cassette deck as standard equipment, but some cars, especially those targeted at older drivers, were offered with the option of a cassette player, either by itself or sometimes in combination with a CD slot. Most new cars can still accommodate aftermarket cassette players, and the auxiliary jack advertised for MP3 players can be used also with portable cassette players, but 2011 was the first model year for which no American manufacturer offered factory-installed cassette players.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/automobiles/06AUDIO.html|title=For Car Cassette Decks, Play Time Is Over|last=Williams|first=Stephen|newspaper=New York Times|date=4 February 2011|access-date=18 July 2012}}

{{Anchor|cleaning cassette}}

File:TDK HCL-11 20050806.jpg

File:Panasonic-Anrufbeantworter.jpg]]

File:Aiwa cassette player..jpg

The Compact Cassette originally was intended for use in dictation machines. In this capacity, some later-model cassette-based dictation machines could also run the tape at half speed (¹⁵⁄₁₆ in/s) as playback quality was not critical. The cassette soon became a medium for distributing prerecorded music—initially through the Philips Record Company (and subsidiary labels Mercury and Philips in the US). As of 2009, one still found cassettes used for a variety of purposes, such as journalism, oral history, meeting and interview transcripts, audio books, and so on. Police are still big buyers of cassette tapes, as some lawyers "don't trust digital technology for interviews".{{cite web|url=http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2009/05/19/demand_actually_increasing_for_cassette_tapes |title=Demand actually increasing for cassette tapes |publisher=AfterDawn |date=18 May 2009 |access-date=25 February 2014}} However, they are starting to give way to Compact Discs and more "compact" digital storage media. Prerecorded cassettes were also employed as a way of providing chemotherapy information to recently diagnosed cancer patients as studies found anxiety and fear often gets in the way of the information processing.Aston, Val. "Chemotherapy Information for Patients and their Families: Audio Cassettes, a New Way Forward". European Journal of Oncology Nursing. 2.1 (1998): 67-8.

The cassette quickly found use in the commercial music industry. One artifact found on some commercially produced music cassettes was a sequence of test tones, called SDR (Super Dynamic Range, also called XDR, or eXtended Dynamic Range) soundburst tones, at the beginning and end of the tape, heard in order of low frequency to high. These were used during SDR/XDR's duplication process to gauge the quality of the tape medium. Many consumers objected to these tones since they were not part of the recorded music.{{cite web|title=Analysis of an SDR Cassette Tape|url=http://www.lenrek.net/experiments/sdr-cassette/|date=April 2009}}

Multitrack recorders utilizing the compact cassette were introduced beginning in 1979 with the TEAC 144 Portastudio. In the simplest configuration, rather than playing a pair of stereo channels of each side of the cassette, the typical portastudio used a four-track tape head assembly to access four tracks on the cassette at once (with the tape playing in one direction). Each track could be recorded to, erased, or played back individually, allowing musicians to overdub themselves and create simple multitrack recordings easily, which could then be mixed down to a finished stereo version on an external machine. To increase audio quality in these recorders, the tape speed sometimes was doubled to 3{{sfrac|3|4}} inches per second, in comparison to the standard 1⁷⁄₈ ips; additionally, dbx, Dolby B or Dolby C noise reduction provided compansion (compression of the signal during recording with equal and opposite expansion of the signal during playback), which yields increased dynamic range by lowering the noise level and increasing the maximum signal level before distortion occurs. Multi-track cassette recorders with built-in mixer and signal routing features ranged from easy-to-use beginner units up to professional-level recording systems.{{cite web|title=VintageCassette.com|url=http://www.vintagecassette.com|access-date=13 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902170856/http://www.vintagecassette.com/|archive-date=2 September 2006|url-status=dead}} Cassette-based multitrack recorders are credited with launching the home recording revolution.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02X2M-BP2OsC&pg=PA180|page=180|title=The Guitar Player Book: 40 Years of Interviews, Gear, and Lessons from the World's Most Celebrated Guitar Magazine|first=Michael|last=Molenda|publisher=Hal Leonard Corporation|year=2007|isbn=9780879307820}}{{cite magazine|last=Verna|first=Paul|title=Tascam Marks 25 Years Of Audio Innovation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oggEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PT85&dq=portastudio&pg=PT85#v=onepage&q=portastudio&f=false|magazine=Billboard|date=September 11, 1999|page=64|access-date=December 18, 2024}}

File:Dualdeck.jpg

Most cassettes were sold blank, and used for recording (dubbing) the owner's records (as backup, to play in the car, or to make mixtape compilations), their friends' records, or music from the radio. This practice was condemned by the music industry with such alarmist slogans as "Home Taping Is Killing Music". However, many claimed that the medium was ideal for spreading new music and would increase sales, and strongly defended their right to copy at least their own records onto tape. For a limited time in the early 1980s Island Records sold chromium dioxide "One Plus One"{{cite web|url=http://www.thisdayinrock.com/index.php/industry/1981-island-records-launched-one-plus-one-cassettes-one-side-had-one-of-their/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130629204914/http://www.thisdayinrock.com/index.php/industry/1981-island-records-launched-one-plus-one-cassettes-one-side-had-one-of-their/|archive-date=29 June 2013|title=Island Records launched 'One Plus One' cassettes|publisher=Rock History|date=13 February 2013|url-status=usurped|access-date=4 April 2013 }}

Various legal cases arose surrounding the dubbing of cassettes. In the UK, in the case of CBS Songs v. Amstrad (1988), the House of Lords found in favor of Amstrad that producing equipment that facilitated the dubbing of cassettes, in this case a high-speed twin cassette deck that allowed one cassette to be copied directly onto another, did not constitute copyright infringement by the manufacturer.CBS Songs v. Amstrad (1988) In a similar case, a shop owner who rented cassettes and sold blank tapes was not liable for copyright infringement even though it was clear that his customers likely were dubbing them at home.CBS v. Ames (1982) In both cases, the courts held that manufacturers and retailers could not be held accountable for the actions of consumers.{{Cite book|last=Dubey|first=N. B.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3aiA1URwOXIC&q=%22+Various+legal+cases+arose+surrounding+the+dubbing+of+cassettes.%22&pg=PA149|title=Office Management: Developing Skills for Smooth Functioning|date=December 2009|publisher=Global India Publications|isbn=978-93-80228-16-7 }}

As an alternative to home dubbing, in the late 1980s, the Personics company installed booths in record stores across America that allowed customers to make personalized mixtapes from a digitally encoded back-catalogue with customised printed covers.{{cite web |last=Chiu |first=David |title=The Forgotten Precursor to iTunes |url=https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1340-the-forgotten-precursor-to-itunes/ |website=Pitchfork |date=26 October 2016 |access-date=21 June 2020 }}

File:Commodore-Datasette-C2N-Mk1-Front.jpg recorder for Commodore computers]]

File:Verbatim ST-600 XD Streamer Cassette.jpg

Floppy disk storage had become the standard data storage medium in the United States by the mid-1980s; for example, by 1983 the majority of software sold by Atari Program Exchange was on floppy. Cassette remained more popular for 8-bit computers such as the Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MSX, and Amstrad CPC 464 in many countries such as the United Kingdom{{cite news|url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1985-01/1985_01_BYTE_10-01_Through_the_Hourglass#page/n399/mode/2up|title=The Amstrad CPC 464 | work=Byte |date=January 1985|access-date=27 October 2013|last=Pountain |first=Dick|page=401}}{{cite news|url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/v2n3/apx.html|title=APX / On top of the heap | work=Antic | date=June 1983 | access-date=30 October 2013|last=DeWitt |first=Robert}} (where 8-bit software was mostly sold on cassette until that market disappeared altogether in the early 1990s). Reliability of cassettes for data storage is inconsistent, with many users recalling repeated attempts to load video games;{{cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/gadgets-rage-against-the-machine-2194217.html | title=Gadgets: Rage against the machine | work=The Independent | date=26 January 2011 | access-date=31 January 2012 | quote=Many will recall fiddling around with volume controls on their computer cassette decks in the hope that Manic Miner would actually load and not crash after 30 minutes of listening to beeps and crackles. ... 'I remember listening to Elite load on the BBC Micro for half an hour, only for it to continually fail at 98 per cent complete,' recalls Luke Peters, editor of T3 magazine. | location=London | first=David | last=Crookes}} the Commodore Datasette used very reliable, but slow, digital encoding.{{cite news | url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue57/turbotape.html | title=How TurboTape Works | work=Compute! | date=February 1985 | access-date=30 October 2013 | author=De Ceukelaire, Harrie | pages=112}} In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Poland, Hungary, and the Netherlands, cassette data storage was so popular that some radio stations would broadcast computer programs that listeners could record onto cassette and then load into their computer.{{cite web|author=Lennart Benschop |title=BASICODE |url=http://www.xs4all.nl/~lennartb/basicode.html |access-date=20 January 2008 }}{{Cite web |date=12 November 2021 |title=Mixtape: Cassetternet |url=https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/mixtape-cassetternet |url-status=live |access-date=24 December 2021 |website=WNYC Studios |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211112152233/https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/mixtape-cassetternet |archive-date=12 November 2021 }} See BASICODE.

The cassette was adapted into what is called a streamer cassette (also known as a "D/CAS" cassette), a version dedicated solely for data storage, and used chiefly for hard disk backups and other types of data. Streamer cassettes look almost exactly the same as a standard cassette, with the exception of having a notch about one quarter-inch wide and deep situated slightly off-center at the top edge of the cassette. Streamer cassettes also have a re-usable write-protect tab on only one side of the top edge of the cassette, with the other side of the top edge having either only an open rectangular hole, or no hole at all. This is due to the entire one-eighth inch width of the tape loaded inside being used by a streamer cassette drive for the writing and reading of data, hence only one side of the cassette being used. Streamer cassettes can hold anywhere from 250 kilobytes to 600 megabytes of data.{{cite web |url=https://obsoletemedia.org/streamer-cassette/ |title=Streamer Cassette (D/CAS) (late 1980s – late 1990s) |date=2019 |publisher=Museum of Obsolete Media |access-date=19 July 2019 }}

File:Elcaset and Compact Cassette size comparison.jpg

Technical development of the cassette effectively ceased when digital recordable media, such as DAT and MiniDisc, were introduced in the late 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s, with Dolby S recorders marking the peak of Compact Cassette technology. Anticipating the switch from analog to digital format, major companies, such as Sony, shifted their focus to new media.{{Cite news|author=Al Fasoldt |title=Sony Unveils the Minidisc |url=http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/minidisc91.html |publisher=The Syracuse Newspapers |year=1991 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090823021916/http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/minidisc91.html |archive-date=23 August 2009 |author-link=Al Fasoldt }} In 1992, Philips introduced the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC), a DAT-like tape in almost the same shell as a Compact Cassette. It was aimed primarily at the consumer market. A DCC deck could play back both types of cassettes. Unlike DAT, which was accepted in professional usage because it could record without lossy compression effects, DCC failed in home, mobile and professional environments, and was discontinued in 1996.{{Cite news|author=Gijs Moes|title=Successor of cassette failed: Philips stops production of DCC|publisher=Eindhovens Dagblad|date=31 October 1996}}

File:CassetteAndMicrocassette.jpg

The microcassette largely supplanted the full-sized cassette in situations where voice-level fidelity is all that is required, such as in dictation machines and answering machines. Microcassettes have in turn given way to digital recorders of various descriptions.{{cite web|publisher=J&R Product Guide|title=Cassette vs. Digital|url=http://www.jr.com/Templates/Guides/answering+machines.tem?JRSource=nsa&nsa=1#01|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928011505/http://www.jr.com/Templates/Guides/answering%2Bmachines.tem?JRSource=nsa&nsa=1#01|archive-date=28 September 2007}} Since the rise of cheap CD-R discs, and flash memory-based digital audio players, the phenomenon of "home taping" has effectively switched to recording to a Compact Disc or downloading from commercial or music-sharing websites.{{cite encyclopedia|title=Phonograph records and prerecorded audio tapes and disks|encyclopedia=Gale Encyclopedia of American Industries|year=2005|url=http://www.answers.com/topic/phonograph-records-and-prerecorded-audio-tapes-and-disks|access-date=20 September 2006}}

Because of consumer demand, the cassette has remained influential on design, more than a decade after its decline as a media mainstay. As the Compact Disc grew in popularity, cassette-shaped audio adapters were developed to provide an economical and clear way to obtain CD functionality in vehicles equipped with cassette decks but no CD player. A portable CD player would have its analog line-out connected to the adapter, which in turn fed the signal to the head of the cassette deck. These adapters continue to function with MP3 players and smartphones, and generally are more reliable than the FM transmitters that must be used to adapt CD players and digital audio players to car stereo systems. Digital audio players shaped as cassettes have also become available, which can be inserted into any cassette player and communicate with the head as if they were normal cassettes.{{cite web|author=Jer Davis |publisher=The Tech Report |title=The Rome MP3: Portable MP3 player—with a twist |url=http://techreport.com/reviews/2000q3/romemp3/ |access-date=18 September 2006 |year=2000 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060813094531/http://techreport.com/reviews/2000q3/romemp3/ |archive-date=13 August 2006 }} (Internet Archive link){{cite web|publisher=Fastsite|title=C@MP CP-UF32/64 a New Portable Mp3-Player Review|url=http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/camp.html|access-date=18 September 2006|year=2000|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100914232605/http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/multimedia/display/camp.html|archive-date=14 September 2010}}

• Compact Video Cassette
• Digital cassettes
• Digital journalism
• J-card
• Mini-Cassette
• Personal stereo
• Pocket Rockers
• Picocassette
• Timeline of audio formats
• VHS
• Video 2000

• Marc Masters. 2023. High Bias: The Distorted History of the Cassette Tape. University of North Carolina Press.

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category|Compact Cassette}}

{{Wiktionary}}

{{Spoken Wikipedia|En-Compact Cassette.ogg|date=23 May 2011}}

• [http://www.c-90.org/catalogue/tapes Project C-90], a website dedicated to cassette tapes
• [http://tapedeck.org/ tapedeck.org], an online collection of blank audio tape cassettes

{{Audio format}}

{{Magnetic tape data formats}}

{{Music technology}}

{{Philips}}

{{Authority control}}

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