Kickstart: The mixtape isn t dead yet
The mixtape isn t dead yet
Anyone who s ever made a mixtape or grew up playing a favorite song so often you wore out a cassette tape can appreciate the work that Lou Ottens did in the 1960s.
His team was responsible for the compact cassette tape system and followed that up by working on compact discs. Ottens, who died March 6, maintained all he did was come up with the idea. It was other engineers and designers who made it happen, he said.
But an interesting thing I discovered while writing about him is that cassettes are not simply a bit of nostalgia. In fact, National Audio Co. Inc. of Springfield, Mo. the only U.S. maker of cassettes says demand is increasing.