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Last modified on Thu 18 Mar 2021 15.30 EDT Lou Ottens, who has died aged 94, invented the audio tape cassette, and thus was instrumental in making music both more portable and more personal for millions of people around the world. The transistor radio had allowed listeners to carry their preferred radio stations around with them, but the advent of the audio cassette provided them with an easy means of recording radio broadcasts or dubbing from LP records into an easily portable format. Ottens had already developed portable tape recorders for his employers, the Dutch electronics company Philips, but he pursued a simpler format, as he put it, “simply out of irritation” with the awkwardness of handling reel-to-reel tape. He never foresaw the changes his 1962 invention would bring. “We expected it to be a success, not a revolution,” he said.
Unspooling the magic of Lou Ottens, an unsung hero The inventor of the cassette tape has left the building but the mixtape will not be forgotten Mathures Paul | | Published 15.03.21, 12:22 AM Many readers will remember cassettes with a certain amount of disdain. It almost obliterated the pure sound of vinyl (only to receive a similar treatment from CDs). The cases cracked easily. And it unspooled unceremoniously inside the player. At the same time, it championed three qualities. Portability. Affordability. Disposability. Ah well, the last mentioned is not exactly a quality. Be that as it may, the tape changed the music game for decades. With the death of its inventor, Lou Ottens, a chapter in music history has ended.