The Audio Cassette Inventor, Lou Ottens Died
JAKARTA - The world is grieving. Really, there's no reason not to pray for Lou Ottens, the inventor of the audio cassette who died last weekend at the age of 94.
Lou Ottens is a Dutch engineer. It is estimated that one hundred billion cassettes have been sold worldwide since their introduction in the 1960s.
Ottens' inventions changed the way people listened to music. And tapes have even made a comeback in recent years.
Ottens died in his hometown of Duizel last weekend. However, the Ottens family only announced the legend's death this week.
Ottens became head of the Philips product development department in 1960. There, Ottens and his team developed the cassette tape.
In 1963, Ottens's invention was presented at the Radio Berlin electronic exhibition. As soon as possible, Ottens' invention was a worldwide success.
Ottens struck a deal with Phillips and Sony for patent legitimacy. This was done after many Japanese companies produced similar tapes in various sizes.
Involved in CD development
On the 50th anniversary of its creation, Ottens told Time magazine that cassette creation was a "thrill" experience from day one. More than that. Ottens also later became involved in the development of compact discs (CDs).
The CD alone has sold more than 200 billion worldwide to date. In 1982, when Phillips was showing off the CD player they produced, Ottens said, "From now on, conventional record players are obsolete".
Ottens retired four years later. When asked about his career, Ottens said his biggest regret.
That regret is when Sony pioneered the creation of the iconic cassette player, the Walkman. Why not Phillips, thought Ottens.
The cassette tapes are back
Cassettes have experienced an unexpected surge in popularity in recent years. A number of artists including Lady Gaga and The Killers have released their music.
According to the UK's Official Charts Company, cassette sales in the first half of 2020 increased 103% over the same time period the previous year.
As reported by the BBC, the Nielsen research institute noted that cassette sales grew 23 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year.