In 1963 the Philips Company introduced the audiocassette, a device that used magnetic tape to record and replay sound. This convenient form of recording was developed to offer a simple, cost effective alternative to its forerunner, audiotape. Magnetic recording was originally introduced in the form of audiotape in 1929 by Fritz Pfleumer, a German engineer. Prior to the use of audiotape, sound was recorded and stored on records made of wax or vinyl, which proved to be a cumbersome and damage-prone system.

In 1935, a German electronics firm, AEG, began widely marketing a record/playback device that used audiotape. Although the electronics industry refined the clarity and range of AEG's machine, its open-reel format proved to be inconvenient and complicated, since the user had to thread the tape through the machine and onto a take-up reel to record or play back. The technology was invaluable for business use, but because of...