8-track Cartridge

Also known as Stereo 8, the 8-track cartridge is a consumer magnetic tape playback technology that was popular from the mid 1960s to the early 1980s. Although its precursor, reel-to-reel tape, was popular, it was more difficult for consumers to thread the four-track tape onto its machine than it was to place a record on a phonograph player. Cartridges were introduced to remedy this challenge. A metal or plastic housing held the tape inside a self-contained unit that required no threading. Additionally, the 8-track cartridge format doubled the amount of program available by providing eight total tracks instead of four.

8-track cartridge players soon became a popular feature in Ford automobiles, and when home players were introduced in 1966, consumers began to see the 8-track as a viable alternative to the LP. In the late 1970s, however, the audio cassette began to take over the consumer market, and by the early 1980s, 8-track cartridge sales had greatly diminished.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License found at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html. It uses material from the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_8.

The inside of an 8-track cartridge. This image is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License found at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html. It uses material from the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereo_8.