THE inventor of the cassette tape - that changed the history of music - has died, as his 57-year-old creation enjoys a resurgence that has seen sales double in the last year.

 

When was the cassette invented?

As the head of product development with Philips in the early 1960s, Lou Ottens created the cassette tape which was introduced to the world at an electronics fair in Berlin in 1963, going on to take the world by storm. Reflecting on its launch in an interview to mark its 50th anniversary, Ottens, said it was simply "a sensation" from day one.

 

Who was he?

The Dutch engineer died at home in Duizel in the Netherlands at the weekend at the age of 94, his family said, leaving a legacy that - despite the advance of streaming - endures.

 

It changed the way we listen to music?

In 2013, to mark the cassette’s golden jubilee, Ottens said the cassette “was a big surprise for the market” as “it was so small in comparison to reel-to-reel recorders”. The engineer’s idea had been to create something small enough to fit in his inside jacket pocket and when the tape was marketed, it had the tagline, “Smaller than a pack of cigarettes!”

 

The cassette sparked a revolution?

In a market dominated by vinyl and clunky reel-to-reel players, their portable size and ease of copying saw rock and punk make their way behind the Iron Curtain, while worldwide, it saw its sales soar during the 1970s as tape decks and Sony's Walkman arrived on the scene, helping music lovers take their tracks with them with ease.

 

Sales?

Billions of cassettes have been sold over the years, reaching their peak in the mid 1980s with sales of 900 million units a year - 54% of world music - although the arrival of the CD saw that fall back to around a million by 2005.

 

Ottens had a hand in the CD’s creation?

He helped develop the CD for Philips in a joint effort with Sony in 1982, saying then that he was not nostalgic for the cassette as “I like when something new comes”. More than 200 billion CDs have sold since.

 

But it seems the world is still nostalgic?

In the UK alone in 2020, as the pandemic sparked a wistfulness for calmer times and the soundtrack of our past, cassette sales more than doubled, according to figures from the British Phonographic Industry. It was the highest year for tape sales since 2003. There was also a 103% increase on cassette sales in the first half of last year, compared to the same period in 2019.

 

For Ottens, it was all about the CD?

The inventor, who regretted that it was Sony who brought out the first Walkman - saying “It still hurts that we didn’t have one” - told the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad in his retirement that the CD was top dog for him, ahead of tapes and vinyl: “Nothing can match the sound of the CD. It is absolutely noise and rumble-free. That never worked with tape.”