According to Dutch news outlet NRC Handelsblad, the inventor of the world’s first compact cassette tape, Lou Ottens has passed away. He was 94 years old when he passed on March 6th.
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Older millennials, like myself, are probably the last generation that looks back on the cassette tape with fondness. Waiting with your finger hovering above the record button on your old HiFi to copy that cool new song onto your tape was both frustrating and exhilarating. Sure, the technology was flawed – it would wither with time and simply playing the tape many times will decrease the sound quality. But it gave people the ability to continually personalise their music playlists, which wasn’t really possible before.
Ottens started working on the cassette tape in the early 1960’s, wanting to develop a way for people to listen to music that was affordable and accessible in the way that large reel-to-reel tapes at the time weren’t. As the story goes, he built a wooden prototype that informed and guided the rest of the project. He then wanted to convince Philips to license the invention to other companies at no charge (much like Volvo did with the three-point harness safety belt).
The first “compact cassette” was introduced by Philips in 1963. Ottens then went on to help develop the compact disc with Philips and Sony.
The cassette tape not only gave people the ability to create playlists for the first time, but also made music listening on the go viable for the first time. The Walkman became a global phenomenon and ultimately led to the proliferation of personal music consumption. The cassette tape then led to the Discman and ultimately the iPod.
Do you have any fond memories of cassette tapes? Tell us your story in the comments below.
