Cassette Tape Inventor Lou Ottens Has Died

US 100 Billion sold, launched a million careers      12/03/21

Sad news this week that Lou Ottens, the inventor of the Cassette Tape has died aged 94. It was created back in 1963 while working at Philips as head of product development. Their brief was to move away from bulky reel-to-reel tapes and launch a more compact and portable solution.

It was launched  at the IFA Berlin - radio electronics show and caused a sensation being marketed "smaller than a pack of cigarettes". Imagine that tagline now!

For an entire generation, or perhaps two the cassette tape became the language of love through mix tapes, and the easy way to listen to your favourite albums of compilations.

Of course, the cassette spawned the Walkman (sadly not a Philips invention) and started the whole take your music with you concept which we now take for granted. And for many of us, the cassette enabled a way into music recording either via sound-on-sound or early multi-track porta-studios.

 Incidentally, the cassette appears to be having somewhat of a renaissance, with 2020 seeing more than double  (157,000) the number sold in 2019 just in Britain.

Rip Lou Ottens 21 June 1926 - 6 march 2021 passed away  at his home in Duizel, Netherlands.

Thanks to Alex (CR-78) for the spot.

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