Lou Ottens, Inventor of the Audio Cassette, Dies at 94

UltimateClassicRock ^ | March 10, 2021 | Lou Otten

[nickcarraway]

The Dutch engineer credited with inventing the audio cassette has died. Lou Ottens was 94.

As head of product development for Philips in 1960, he led a team that developed the initial portable tape recorder; he then introduced the first cassette tape at a Berlin electronics fair three years later. The slogan back then: "Smaller than a pack of cigarettes!"

Primis Player Placeholder

This portable tape quickly overtook cumbersome reel-to-reel recording methods that had long been the standard. Home decks gave way to boomboxes and in-dash car models – bringing music to the masses.

That was, in fact, the goal: Ottens decided early on that he wanted a tape that would fit into his jacket pocket, even making a wooden model to determine the exact size specifications. "I got annoyed with the clunky, user-unfriendly reel-to-reel system," Ottens later told the Dutch News. "It's that simple."

"Compact Cassette" was trademarked a year later. Ottens' design eventually became the standard for cassettes worldwide after a deal was struck with Sony. More than 100 million have since been sold, many of them during an unlikely more recent boom.

Sales in the U.S. were up more than 100 percent midway through 2020, as analysts called cassettes the "unlikely comeback kid of music formats." Meanwhile, the BBC reported that cassette sales doubled last year in the U.K., as consumers snapped up the highest number of tapes since 2003.

And this is no one-off boomlet. Sales in the U.S. grew 23 percent in 2018, and by 35 percent in 2017, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"There are a number of people who are still using it," Ottens marveled in 2016's Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape. "We expected that it would be a success, but not a revolution."

Ottens also led a team that developed the compact disc in 1979 at Philips, selling billions more copies. He retired in 1986, giving full credit for this musical revolution to those around him. "We were little boys who had fun playing," he once said. "We didn't feel like we were doing anything big. It was a kind of sport."

In the end, Ottens only admitted to one big regret: Sony developed the first Walkman, "the ideal application for the cassette," instead of Philips. "It still hurts that we didn't have one."

[nickcarraway]

Nothing sounds better than a cassette when you're driving in your car.

[Pilgrim's Progress]

So this is the name of the man that I was cursing every time I had to stick a pencil in one of the sockets to rewind a million feet of tape that had spilled out of the case. Got a feeling he is facing a bunch of angry former cassette owners wherever he happened to end up.

[Vendome]

Must have created Memorex, as I have seen posts about him several times...

[HYPOCRACY]

That guy destroyed my 8 track collection of “Frampton Comes Alive” and “Bat Out of Hell”!

[PAR35]

Phillips made a lot of the vacuum tubes used by the Nazis in World War II. The British bombed the plant in late 1942. 57 percent of the planes were damaged or destroyed. One German fighter was lost.

[Terry L Smith]

Thank you, Mr. Otten, for giving me the tool to record many hours of Zen music from the local college “Cheezmusik” Sunday morning broadcasts!

I was also privy via your great tool to capture Weird Al Yankovic’s first amateur recording submitted to Dr. Demento’s radio show!!

[Nateman]

It was an odd sensation seeing cassette tapes fade away on the market. CD's are fading as well to other digital devices. Since nature can record all the information needed to create a baby into a single cell it is only a matter of time until people figure out something similar.

Semiconductors are close to the atomic level now but they require very expensive factories to create

I am assuming, of course ,that Civilization remains intact. Civilization is not something fixed in stone and has in fact dissolved more than once historically.

[SES1066]

Lou Ottens - Thank you and G-d Bless! RIP.

In the 1950-60s THIS was really a cool add-on! Not so sure I'd use it on anything but the smoothest of roads ... on second thought not even then!

And below was the cassette's closest competition, the 'Lear 8-Track Tape', yes, Bill Lear of the Lear Jet fame (1964)!

I turned down a used car once just because there was another very similar one at a close price match. The reason? Car A had the 8-Track while Car B had a AM radio that I could easily replace with an AM-FM Cassette unit! 8-Track = self-destruct!

[a fool in paradise]

The documentary streams for free (with ads) on tubitv

[a fool in paradise]

Cassettes made music choices mobile (portables then boomboxes and walkmen) also made it simple to compile a mix or record a live performance (lecture or concert) or trade albums/shows.

[Does so]

There are a few AKAI reel-to-reel (plus 8-track) tape recorders on Craigslist. Maybe you'd want to play Lady Gaga in your Oldsmobile convertible. About $350...

I've got one. :)

[Does so]

If you’re a sailor, excised cassette tape makes a good wind-direction indicator. (Although cassette tape does include iron). ;)

[Fresh Wind]

It sounds like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np5pFNe9d_k

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[Fresh Wind]

The first cassette tape (1958):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozr9wzSqdV8

(Hint: It wasn’t Philips that invented it)

[Roadrunner383]

As far as music, cassettes were lo-fi until Advent came out with the first high quality cassette tape deck in the early 70s. The key was the transport and the fact it was the first deck to use Dolby B noise reduction. After that, the cassette surpassed the 8-Track in sound reproduction.

[JRios1968]

Did they try using a pencil?

[1FreeAmerican]

I had a small 4 track collection and a Muntz 4 track player in my Datsun 410 wagon. Sounded great.

[woodbutcher1963]

A couple years ago I brought my Panasonic stereo with built in 8 track and Thrusters speakers back from my mom’s house.
The 8 track does not work, but the AM/FM stereo still cranks. It is 44 years old.
It is now sitting on the bench in my garage. The speakers are mounted on the walls.

The funny thing is that around the same time my 21 year old son was listening to some music that he had downloaded onto his smartphone. Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell. I had the exact same album I showed him on 8 track from when it originally came out.

[jdsteel]

That guy destroyed my 8 track (collection of ).............kachunk.........(“Frampton Comes) Alive” and “Bat Out of Hell”!

I know you’ll get this joke. Younger folks won’t!