On this day, March 6, 2021, Lou Ottens, inventor of the cassette tape, died.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

This Day in Music

What Happened Today In Music

March 6th

2021 - Lou Ottens
Lou Ottens passed away at the age of 94. The inventor of the tape cassette, he was instrumental in changing personal listening habits for an entire generation. “We were little boys who had fun playing,” he once said of his invention. “We didn’t feel like we were doing anything big.”

Lou Ottens


Ottens in 2007 during an interview for the magazine of the Dutch Royal Institute of Engineers (Nederlands Koninklijk Instituut van Ingenieurs)

Born: Lodewijk Frederik Ottens; 21 June 1926; Bellingwolde, Netherlands
Died: 6 March 2021 (aged 94); Duizel, Netherlands
Nationality: Dutch
Occupation: Engineer

Lodewijk Frederik Ottens (21 June 1926 – 6 March 2021) was a Dutch engineer and inventor, best known as the inventor of the cassette tape, and for his work in helping to develop the compact disc. Ottens was employed by Philips for the entirety of his career.

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[PJMcK]

1. A truly great invention!

It was a viable and popular format for both recording and data storage. Record companies released their albums on cassettes and the Walkman and the boom box helped explode the format's usage.

Since the recording format for the cassette has four tracks, (right & left stereo for both directions), professional audio equipment makers such as Tascam developed mini 4-track recording rigs complete with a multi-channel mixer. Many musicians used these devices to sketch out and demo their songs.

A music executive once told me that Philips, where the format was developed, got a small royalty on every cassette made! Hard to know if it's true but if it is... Wow.

[pansypoo53219]

2. i went thru art school w/ a tape walkman. i went thru the milwaukee library's cd collection + taped the worthy

discovered different artists + hooked on tenors + hooked on arias so good got them. got 2 amazon tape players when my old pabnasonic died. both died to fast. screw new. ebay it is. slowly going thru my tapes.