Lou Ottens, the inventor of the audio cassette, dies at 94
The Dutch engineer who changed the way the world listened
to music has died.
When cassette tapes were introduced to the world in the 1960s, the invention changed the way the world consumed music. The product was much smaller and more compact than vinyls and allowed listeners to take their music with them. An estimated 100-billion cassette tapes have been sold around the world since and in a statement, inventor Lou Ottens’ family confirmed that the pioneer passed away at 94.
If you’re over 30, you undoubtedly have memories of using cassette tapes to make epic mixtapes (often by recording songs you love off the radio) and while the product lived a short life as CDs started to dominate the music market, there has certainly been a resurgence of projects being released on cassette over the past few years, with artists like Lady Gaga, Dua Lipa, and The Killers releasing their latest records on the medium.
Creator of the revolutionary product, Lou Ottens, died last weekend in his hometown of Duizel, his family confirms.
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Ottens and his team developed the cassette tape in 1960 when he became head of Philips' product development department. After three years of perfecting the cassette, the product was presented at the 1963 Berlin Radio electronics fair and quickly took off around the world.
After cassettes started being copied by various Japanese companies, Ottens struck a deal with Philips and Sony that saw his model confirmed as the patented cassette.
On the 50th anniversary of the cassette, Ottens told TIME that it became “a sensation” from day one.
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As the cassette started gaining traction around the world, Ottens became part of the team working on the next invention to take the music industry by storm – the compact disc. When the CD player was officially introduced by Philips in 1982, Ottens famously said: "From now on, the conventional record player is obsolete".
According to the Official Charts Company in the UK, the sale of cassettes in the first half of 2020 increased by 103% compared to the same time period the previous year.
Do you remember what the first album you bought on cassette was? Let Vic know in the comments section below.
Image courtesy: Pixabay