War of 8-track and cassette audio

While JVC and Sony were vying for dominance in the video market, the audio world was enjoying peace and prosperity with the sound of 8-track recorders. However, rumors about a new invention, commonly known as the "cassette tape", appeared more and more often.

The 8-track cartridge, or Cartridge Stereo 8 as its creator Bill Lear of Lear Jet called it, enjoyed its greatest success in the mid-8s. This is how car recorders appeared. Most of these tape recorders were made by Motorola, which made everything at the time. However, XNUMX trackers were ahead of their time. Thanks to them, you could listen to your favorite songs without going to another page. What's more, in the late sixties they guaranteed better sound quality than their later winner, the cassette.

However, in this case, the victory was determined not by the ambitions of the producers, lawsuits or failed marketing moves, but rather a small evolution of an already known format. Smaller and more versatile cassettes had the ability to rewind the tape. For 8-trackers there was a cycle rule. I had to wait until the end of the cartridge to listen to the song from scratch. To make matters worse, the Hi-Fi era arrived in 1971, which only increased the chances of the "baby".

Sony was also in this distribution. First in 1964 she convinced Philips to share her invention with other manufacturers, and then in 1974 she revolutionized the world with her Sony Walkman. This portable cassette player made a splash. In 1983, sales of blank cassettes even exceeded the number of records sold on them. The profit that the Walkman brought in amazed even its creators.

When the first albums recorded on CD appeared in stores in 1982, 8-trackers were not on sale for a long time. The cassette eventually beat the cartridge. However, to this day you can find enthusiasts of this technology. They are looped in time, like their 8-track trackers.

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