Editing Cassette tape (section)

===Popularity of music cassettes===
Prerecorded '''music cassettes''' (also known as ''Music-Cassettes'', and later just '''Musicassettes''') were launched in Europe in late 1965. The [[Mercury Record Company]], a US affiliate of Philips, introduced Musicassettes to the US in July 1966. The initial offering consisted of 49 titles.<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=16 July 1966|title=Mercury Issues 49 'Cassettes'|magazine=Billboard |publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc.|volume=78|issue=29|page=69|issn=0006-2510}}</ref>

The compact cassette format was initially designed for dictation and portable use, and the audio quality of early players was not well-suited for music. In 1971, the [[Henry Kloss|Advent Corporation]] introduced their Model 201 tape deck that combined [[Dolby noise-reduction system|Dolby type B]] noise reduction and [[chromium(IV) oxide]] (CrO<sub>2</sub>) tape, with a commercial-grade tape transport mechanism supplied by the Wollensak camera division of 3M Corporation. This resulted in the format being taken more seriously for musical use, and started the era of [[high fidelity]] cassettes and players.<ref name="Camras">{{Cite book |title=Magnetic Tape Recording |publisher=Van Nostrand Reinhold |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-442-21774-7 |editor=Marvin Camras}}</ref>

British record labels began releasing Musicassettes in October 1967, and they exploded as a mass-market medium after the first [[Walkman]], the TPS-L2, went on sale on 1 July 1979, as cassettes provided portability, which vinyl records could not. While portable radios and boom boxes had been around for some time, the Walkman was the first truly personal portable music player, one that not only allowed users to listen to music away from home, but to do so in private. According to the technology news website The Verge, "the world changed" on the day the TPS-L2 was released.<ref name="Guardian3.29.10">{{cite news |title=Return of the audio cassette |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/mar/29/audio-cassette-comeback |access-date=14 August 2023 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=29 March 2010 |last1=Lynskey |first1=Dorian }}</ref><ref name="TheVerge">{{cite web |title=40 years ago, the Sony Walkman changed how we listen to music |date=July 2019 |url=https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/1/20677636/sony-walkman-anniversary-tps-l2-cassette-music-player-portable-mp3-evolution |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=The Verge |archive-date=13 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190713001243/https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/1/20677636/sony-walkman-anniversary-tps-l2-cassette-music-player-portable-mp3-evolution |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="History.com">{{cite web |title=The first Sony Walkman goes on sale |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-sony-walkman-goes-on-sale |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=[[History.com]] |archive-date=12 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230812193052/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-first-sony-walkman-goes-on-sale |url-status=live }}</ref> Stereo tape decks and [[boom box]]es became some of the most highly sought-after consumer products of both decades, as the ability of users to take their music with them anywhere with ease<ref name=EncyclopediaPopCulture>{{cite book|last1=Millard|first1=Andre|chapter=Cassette Tape|date=2013|title=[[St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture]]|page=529|edition=2.1}}</ref> led to its popularity around the globe.<ref name=EncyclopediaPopCulture/><ref>{{Cite journal|title = Digital Compact Cassette|date=1994|volume=82|issue=10|pages = 1479–1489|journal=[[Proceedings of the IEEE]]|last = Hoogendoorn|first=A|doi=10.1109/5.326405}}</ref>

[[File:Original Sony Walkman TPS-L2.JPG|thumb|upright|left|The [[Sony Walkman]] TPS-L2]]
Like the [[transistor radio]] in the 1950s and 1960s, the [[portable CD player]] in the 1990s, and the [[MP3 player]] in the 2000s, the Walkman defined the portable music market for the decade of the '80s, with cassette sales overtaking those of [[gramophone record|LPs]].<ref name="Daniel">{{Cite book |author1=Eric D. Daniel |url=https://archive.org/details/magneticrecordin00eric |title=Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years |author2=C. Dennis Mee |author3=Mark H. Clark |publisher=The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-7803-4709-0}}</ref><ref name = Walkman/> Total [[Gramophone record|vinyl record]] sales remained higher well into the 1980s due to greater sales of singles, although [[cassette single]]s achieved popularity for a period in the 1990s.<ref name=Walkman>{{Cite book|title=Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman|author1=Paul du Gay |author2=Stuart Hall |author3=Linda Janes |author4=Hugh Mackay |author5=Keith Negus |year=1997|publisher=Sage Publications Ltd|isbn= 978-0-7619-5402-6}}</ref> Another barrier to cassettes overtaking vinyl in sales was [[shoplifting]]; compact cassettes were small enough that a thief could easily place one inside a pocket and walk out of a shop without being noticed. To prevent this, retailers in the US would place cassettes inside oversized "spaghetti box" containers or locked [[display case]]s, either of which would significantly inhibit browsing, thus reducing cassette sales.<ref name="Record8">{{cite journal|last=Gans|first=David |title=Packaging Innovations Raise Cassettes' In-store Profile|journal=Record|date=June 1983|volume=2 |issue=8|page=20}}</ref>

During the early 1980s some record labels sought to solve this problem by introducing new, larger packages for cassettes which would allow them to be displayed alongside vinyl records and [[compact disc]]s, or giving them a further market advantage over vinyl by adding [[bonus track]]s.<ref name="Record8" /> Willem Andriessen wrote that the development in technology allowed "hardware designers to discover and satisfy one of the collective desires of human beings all over the world, independent of region, climate, religion, culture, race, sex, age and education: the desire to enjoy music at any time, at any place, in any desired sound quality and almost at any wanted price".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Andriessen|first=Willem|title="THE WINNER": Compact Cassette. A Commercial and Technological Look Back at the Greatest Success Story in the History of Audio Up to Now|journal=[[Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials]]|date=1999|volume=193|issue=1–3|pages=12 |doi=10.1016/s0304-8853(98)00502-2}}</ref> Critic [[Robert Palmer (American writer)|Robert Palmer]], writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'' in 1981, cited the proliferation of personal stereos as well as extra tracks not available on LP as reasons for the surge in popularity of cassettes.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Palmer |first1=Robert |author1-link=Robert Palmer (American writer) |title=The Pop Life; Cassettes Now Have Material Not Available On Disks |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/29/arts/the-pop-life-cassettes-now-have-material-not-available-on-disks.html |access-date=27 April 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=29 July 1981 |archive-date=30 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210430032219/https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/29/arts/the-pop-life-cassettes-now-have-material-not-available-on-disks.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Cassettes' ability to allow users to record content in public also led to a boom in [[Bootleg recording|bootleg]] cassettes made at live shows in the 1980s.<ref name="Guardian8.30.13">{{cite web |date=30 August 2013 |title=Total rewind: 10 key moments in the life of the cassette |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/aug/30/cassette-store-day-music-tapes |access-date=14 August 2023 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |archive-date=14 August 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240814115240/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/aug/30/cassette-store-day-music-tapes |url-status=live }}</ref> The Walkman dominated the decade, selling up to 350 million units. So synonymous did the name "Walkman" become with all portable music players—with a German dictionary at one point defining the term as such without reference to Sony—that the Austrian Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that Sony, which had not sought to have the publisher of that dictionary retract that definition, could not prevent other companies from using that name, as it had now become genericized.<ref name="WeForum">{{cite web |title=As Apple kills off the iPod ... here are 5 other pieces of beloved tech we've said goodbye to in the past 20 years |date=16 August 2017 |url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/in-loving-memory-of-the-ipod-and-five-other-pieces-of-beloved-tech-we-ve-killed-off-in-the-past-20-years/ |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=We Forum |archive-date=12 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230812194601/https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/in-loving-memory-of-the-ipod-and-five-other-pieces-of-beloved-tech-we-ve-killed-off-in-the-past-20-years/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="WorldTrademark">{{cite web |title='Walkman' has become generic, rules Supreme Court |url=https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/article/walkman-has-become-generic-rules-supreme-court |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=World Trademark Review |archive-date=12 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230812193102/https://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/article/walkman-has-become-generic-rules-supreme-court |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=PinsentMasons>{{cite web|url=https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/sony-loses-walkman-trade-mark-as-too-generic|publisher=Pinsent Masons|title=Sony loses Walkman trade mark as too generic|date=5 June 2002|access-date=12 August 2023|archive-date=12 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230812225757/https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/news/sony-loses-walkman-trade-mark-as-too-generic|url-status=live}}</ref> As a result of this, a number of Sony's competitors produced their own version of the Walkman. Others made their own branded tape players, like JVC, Panasonic, Sharp, and Aiwa, the second-largest producer of the devices.<ref name="VinylFactory">{{cite web |title=Rewind! A guide to the best portable cassette players |date=24 March 2017 |url=https://thevinylfactory.com/features/the-8-best-portable-cassette-players/ |access-date=14 August 2023 |publisher=The Vinyl Factory |archive-date=12 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230812193059/https://thevinylfactory.com/features/the-8-best-portable-cassette-players/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Between 1985, when cassettes overtook vinyl, and 1992, when they were overtaken by CDs<ref name=History.com/>{{Failed verification|date=October 2024|reason=The history.com source provides no information about its popularity in relation to vinyl or CDs}} (introduced in 1983 as a format that offered greater storage capacity and more accurate sound),<ref name="LATimes">{{cite web |title=In a digital age, vinyl's making a comeback |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-apr-26-et-vinyl26-story.html |access-date=14 August 2023 |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=26 April 2009 |archive-date=12 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230812225755/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-apr-26-et-vinyl26-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=October 2024|reason=Source does not contain information about CDs benefits against cassette, however it does mention the introduction of CDs in 1983}} the cassette tape was the most popular format in the United States<ref name=History.com/> and the UK. Record labels experimented with innovative packaging designs. A designer during the era explained: "There was so much money in the industry at the time, we could try anything with design." The introduction of the [[cassette single]], called a "cassingle", was also part of this era and featured a music single in Compact Cassette form. Until 2005, cassettes remained the dominant medium for purchasing and listening to music in some [[Developing country|developing countries]], but [[compact disc]] (CD) technology had superseded the Compact Cassette in the vast majority of music markets throughout the world by this time.<ref name=BBCthirdworld>{{Cite news|title=Not long left for cassette tapes|publisher=BBC|date=17 June 2005|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4099904.stm|access-date=13 September 2006|archive-date=29 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210129050032/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4099904.stm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Total rewind: 10 key moments in the life of the cassette|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/aug/30/cassette-store-day-music-tapes|access-date=17 March 2014|newspaper=The Guardian|date=30 August 2013|author=Jude Rogers|author-link=Jude Rogers|archive-date=14 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240814115240/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/aug/30/cassette-store-day-music-tapes|url-status=live}}</ref>