Happy Birthday – Our Music Cassette Turns 63!

On August 28, 1963, Philips presented the first cassette recorder at the Berlin Radio Show. The cassette brought music to life. It was small, inexpensive, and portable. And you could record your own music with it. It made your music collection mobile.

The Soundtrack to Your Life

Inventor and music lover Andreas Pavel used it as early as the 1970s for a device that would later conquer the world as the Walkman. The cassette thus definitively provided the soundtrack to our lives.

Mixtapes as Love Messages

In the 1980s, audio drama cassettes like "The Three Investigators" and "TKKG" were all the rage. And then, of course, there was the mixtape for your first love.

Many musicians also used the cassette to quickly and easily capture their ideas for new songs. Many hits wouldn't exist today without it. The cassette tape brought music to the streets, not just to car radios. From the late 1970s onward, it provided the soundtrack for breakdancing, which spread from New York to the rest of the world, via boomboxes.

Digitization spells the end

With digitization, the internet, and streaming, the music cassette almost completely disappeared. But not entirely. Stars like The Weeknd and Taylor Swift are now releasing their albums as limited special editions – on cassette!

 

Last edited: Feb 21, 2026 at 9:45 PM

1963 + 60 = 2023
Yu're late

Sorry dude @PulseWave

 

Thank you so much @thantrax, I must have fallen for a fake, great that you thought of that, I've corrected it! It should say 63 and not 60!

 

Last edited: Feb 21, 2026 at 9:47 PM

Ahh, but still, brings back good memories. Those were the days. The days of cassettes. The compactness and price of a cassette compared to LP's and tapes. And since almost anybody could afford a cassette player, you could make a special cassette with special music for somebody. It was a real nice gift. All disappeared. Nostalgia. Yeah, yeah, I know. I am an old fartz....