Compact, convenient, and easy to operate, the audio cassette became the most widely used format for magnetic tape and dominated the field for prerecorded and home-recorded music during the 1970s and 1980s. Although superseded by digital players and recorders in the 1990s, the cassette tape remains the dominant form of sound recording worldwide.

Introduced in the 1940s, magnetic tape recording offered important advantages over revolving discs—longer playback time and more durable materials—but its commercial appeal suffered from the difficulties that users experienced in threading the tape through reel-to-reel tape recorders. One solution to this problem was the tape cartridge, which came in either the continuous loop format or the two-spooled cassette, which made it possible to rewind and fast forward with ease. By the 1960s there were several tape cartridge systems under development, including the four-track, continuous-loop cartridge devised by the Lear Company, the...