THE AUDIOTAPE CASSETTE arrived on the scene in the same year the Beatles released their first album.

Before this, between the 1930s and the 1960s, amateur use ofaudio recording technologies had developed slowly, via wire or reel-to-reel tape technologies or with various attempts at cartridge systems like the 8-track. It wasn't until Philips unveiled their prototype audiotape cassette at the 1963 Berlin Radio Show that home recording really took off. Suddenly, for the beat generation, sound reproduction technology was available to everyone. The audiotape cassette was easy to use, and widely available to everyday consumers. Initial problems with sound quality were resolved during the 1970s, and the audiotape cassette soon replaced the 8-track tape cartridge as the media format of choice for Baby Boomers. Between the jukebox of the 1950s and the Spotify playlists of the 2 1st century, these simple, plastic media objects were the low-tech forerunners of our modern digital media platforms. And they created the framework for music on what we now know as user-generated content sites, social media, and internet streaming.

The development of the audiotape cassette gave music consumers a new, very personal way to interact with recorded music. Along with affordable playback equipment—including battery-operated portable player/recorders, the in-car deck, the Sony Walkman, and the boom box aka ghetto blaster—the cassette tape revolutionized music for the masses. Users could cheaply and easily design and program their own interaction with recorded music, and create an object that reflected their own personal media identity. With an audiotape cassette, fans could change the order of play, add sounds and effects, draw or write on the label, and take and play the tape anywhere. Most importantly, they could create an individual expression of their own musical experience that could be shared with others. The homemade mix tape became a standard trope of musical communication, connecting with friends and family at home, in the car, at a party, or on the beach. The choice of what would go onto a tape was a matter of serious import for romantics across the globe. As they recognized that every mix tape is a love letter.

But this newfound freedom to interact with recorded music had profound implications for the commercial music recording industry.