Who invented audio cassettes

He studied at what is now the Delft University of Technology, supporting himself by working half-days as a draftsman at an X-ray equipment factory, and joined Philips after graduating with a mechanical engineering degree in As he had with the cassette tape, Ottens insisted that his team make the disc smaller and smaller — in a word, compact.

The end result ultimately measured 12 cm 4. His wife of 46 years, Margo van Noord, died in In addition to his daughter Arine, survivors include two other children, Nelly and Jan Ottens; four grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. Ottens retired in and later said he had little affection for cassette tapes, even as hipsters and millennials helped reignite sales, with British music labels launching an international Cassette Store Day — inspired by Record Store Day — to promote the format as a throwback alternative to vinyl, CDs and streaming.

Lou Ottens, a structural engineer trained at the prestigious Technical University in Delft, joined Philips in and was head of the Dutch company's product development department when he began work on an alternative for existing tape recorders with their cumbersome large spools of tape. A structural engineer who trained at the prestigious Technical University in Delft, he joined Philips in and was head of the Dutch company's product development department when he began work on an alternative for existing tape recorders with their cumbersome large spools of tape.

The final product created in later turned into a worldwide hit, with more than billion cassettes sold, many to music fans who would record their own compilations direct from the radio. Its popularity waned with the development of the compact disc, an invention Ottens also helped create as supervisor of a development team, Philips said.

The cassette tape's success stemmed from its simplicity, Ottens said in an interview published by the Philips Museum. In the first car-compatible cassette was designed. By the early s, cassettes were the most common format replacing the LP records.

The Compact Cassette endured competition from the 8-track tape but in the s the sound quality became equal to the 8-track and continued to improve. A cassette was also cheaper which helped with its booming popularity. By the s the cassette saw a drastic decline after CDs were introduced.

Between to , Philips believes three billion Compact Cassettes were sold! Such demands mean most households probably have some cassettes hidden away in boxes. Do you still have your favorite tapes stored away somewhere? Ottens became head of Philips' product development department in , where he and his team developed the cassette tape.

In , it was presented at the Berlin Radio electronics fair and soon became a worldwide success. Ottens struck a deal with Philips and Sony that saw his model confirmed as the patented cassette, after a number of Japanese companies reproduced similar tapes in a number of sizes. On the 50th anniversary of its creation, he told Time magazine that it was a "sensation" from day one. Ottens was also involved in the development of the compact disk, and more than billion of those have been sold worldwide to date.

In , when Philips showed off a production CD player, Ottens said: "From now on, the conventional record player is obsolete".