WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Story of the Sony Walkman 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:15.720 Ask Hey, it's Cara Price, host of tech Stuff. We're 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:17.880 taking a week off, but we'll have fresh episodes for 0:00:17.920 --> 0:00:20.840 you next Wednesday. You won't want to miss Oz's conversation 0:00:20.960 --> 0:00:23.720 with the co founder and CEO of Roadblocks. If you've 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:26.520 always wondered what draws ninety five million people to a 0:00:26.520 --> 0:00:30.639 gaming platform, definitely check out their conversation next week. In 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:32.680 lieu of the headlines today, we wanted to share an 0:00:32.720 --> 0:00:35.680 episode of tech Stuff from September twenty twenty four about 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:38.440 what makes the Sony Walkman one of the most influential 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.959 gadgets of all time. In the episode you're about to hear, 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:44.600 Jonathan Strickland tells us how the Walkman came to be 0:00:45.120 --> 0:00:48.000 and about its lasting impact on how we experience music. 0:00:48.479 --> 0:01:01.760 Take a listen. Welcome to tech Stuff, production from iHeartRadio. 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.000 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:12.960 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:18.440 how the tech are you So? Back in twenty sixteen, 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:22.319 an actual a group of writers writing for Time magazine 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.440 or at least Time dot Com, assembled a list of 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:31.360 what they called the fifty most influential gadgets of all time. 0:01:31.640 --> 0:01:35.679 They said that the list was quote ordered by influence 0:01:36.000 --> 0:01:39.160 end quote, and maybe that's the case. I do find 0:01:39.200 --> 0:01:43.120 it a little hard to swallow because number fifty on 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.480 their list, as in the bottom of the list, was 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.680 the Apple iPhone. Now, y'all, I am not the biggest 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:54.840 fan of Apple. I don't own an iPhone, but I 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.520 think if I were to make a list of most 0:01:57.560 --> 0:02:00.560 influential gadgets of all time, the iPhone would be way 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.960 higher up on that list than the very bottom. You know, 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:07.680 the iPhone really ushered in the era of the consumer smartphone. 0:02:07.720 --> 0:02:12.480 It was not the first smartphone. Apple rarely ever brings 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.240 a product to market as the first of its kind. 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.360 They bring refined products to the market, and it was 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.720 the first smartphone to see huge success with a mainstream audience, 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.800 not just you know, executives on the go or executives 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:32.639 who wanted to have a technological status symbol. Plus, I mean, 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.919 the entire nature of the web changed due to a 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.960 shift toward mobile computing, and I think we have to 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:44.240 lay that largely at the feet of the Apple iPhone. 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.040 While the iPhone is not the most popular smartphone in 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.960 the world, I think that it's really what got the 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:56.519 trend moving toward mobile computing, and that in turn changed 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.280 really like the entire web. So I would put it 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.560 higher on the list. Then my guess is that making 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.720 a list of the fifty most influential gadgets is hard. 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:07.680 And anyway, today's episode is not about the iPhone at all. 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.360 It's just this was the article that kind of launched 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.160 me into where I wanted to go today. So instead 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:16.160 of talking about number fifty, because I've done episodes about 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:18.960 the iPhone before, I thought we would talk about number 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:23.560 forty seven on this list. So this is more influential 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:26.560 than the iPhone according to that group of writers, and 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:31.040 it's the Sony Walkman, as in the portable cassette player. 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:33.520 It's still not very high up on the list, but 0:03:33.720 --> 0:03:36.240 you know, what can you do? So the Walkman created 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:40.960 the chance for folks to experience pre recorded audio in 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:44.520 a pretty new way, a way that was portable, and 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.600 it let them create a kind of bubble around themselves 0:03:47.720 --> 0:03:50.520 even if they were walking around in public. And it 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:54.200 meant you weren't tethered to like a wall outlet or 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.720 lugging around a large tape deck or tape recorder, so 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:01.000 that you could listen to your pre recorded cassettes. You 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.280 could just PLoP in some batteries, a pair of double 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:07.040 A batteries into this thing. You put in your favorite 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.640 audio cassette, You plug in your headphones, put them on 0:04:09.680 --> 0:04:12.200 your ears, you push play, you head out into the world. 0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:14.760 I think it's easy for us to take for granted 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.919 how portable the music experience is today. You know, the 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:22.880 fact that we had MP three players, iPods, and then 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.240 smartphones and streaming services and all that that's transformed the 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.880 way we experience music in large part, but once upon 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.560 a time that wasn't so much of an option. So 0:04:33.680 --> 0:04:36.360 let's turn back the clock and learn about the development, 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.200 the release, and the impact of the Sony Walkman. And 0:04:40.240 --> 0:04:42.400 before we get to that, we have to have some preamble, 0:04:42.480 --> 0:04:44.880 because you know, this is tech stuff. You know tech stuff. 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:47.960 I like to talk about the history of technologies, and 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:50.359 not just the technology, but the stuff that led to 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.440 the development of that tech. So let's talk about recorded 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:58.080 media and the development of the cassette tape medium. Now 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.520 I've done full episodes about the en of recorded media. 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:06.039 How one of the earliest versions was recording sound to 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:10.240 cylinders that were coated in wax. Recording to a wax 0:05:10.279 --> 0:05:14.720 cylinder essentially involved shouting into an acoustic horn, and that 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:18.080 acoustic horn at the narrow end had a little membrane 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.760 that was connected to a needle, and the membrane would 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:26.240 vibrate when sound waves would come into the horn. The 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:31.320 needle that vibrates would carve into the wax on the cylinder. 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:35.200 The cylinder would be turned and the needle would start 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:39.320 to carve a spiral into the cylinder. You could take 0:05:39.600 --> 0:05:43.520 the carved cylinder and put that into a player, which 0:05:43.600 --> 0:05:46.719 essentially did the same process, but in reverse. You would 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:50.120 put a stylist like another needle, and fit it into 0:05:50.240 --> 0:05:53.719 the groove in the cylinder. You would begin to rotate 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.919 the cylinder. The needle would travel through the groove and 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:59.640 it would vibrate as it did so, which would cause 0:05:59.640 --> 0:06:01.839 a memor brain to vibrate at the narrow end of 0:06:01.839 --> 0:06:05.320 an acoustic horn, And if you listened real carefully at 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:07.880 the wide end of the acoustic horn, you would be 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:12.159 able to hear the recorded sound, the playback of whatever 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.920 sound had been recorded originally. Now, it didn't take too 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:20.720 much longer after the invention of the cylinder for various 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:25.360 folks to come up with flat recorded discs as an alternative, 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:27.640 so instead of a cylinder, you would just have a 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:31.360 flat disc with audio recorded on one and then eventually 0:06:31.839 --> 0:06:36.400 both sides of the disc. These would ultimately become easier 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:40.520 to store and to produce than wax cylinders were. They 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.520 were originally made all of stuff like shell ac, which 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:47.600 is essentially something that you get from insects. But eventually 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:52.080 companies would make the shift to vinyl. While different music 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:56.520 companies battled it out over formats, we would mostly settle 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:01.000 on albums playing back at either forty five revolutions or 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:04.719 thirty three and a third revolutions per minent on turntables. 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.560 Some older albums would actually play it like seventy eight 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.600 revolutions per minuent. Now, the record album traces its history 0:07:11.680 --> 0:07:15.760 back to the late nineteenth century. By the nineteen sixties, 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:20.040 you know, more than half a century later, vinyl albums 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:23.640 were the dominant form of recorded media for home use. 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:29.000 In fact, they were almost exclusively the media format for 0:07:29.080 --> 0:07:32.119 home use unless you were really well off or maybe 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:34.960 you worked in the music industry or something, because then 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.960 you might have a real to real player. But otherwise 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:42.040 there just wasn't any call for that. So the music 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.800 industry had been relying upon real to reel players for 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:47.920 a while in order to make master recordings of performances, 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:51.440 as well as to edit and put together that master 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.840 in the first place. And this, of course is magnetic 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:58.160 tape we're talking about now. Magnetic tape also traces its 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:01.680 evolution back to the late nineteen teenth century, though at 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.440 that point we weren't yet talking about tape. So back 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:09.360 in the eighteen eighties, there was this feller named Oberlin Smith, 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:13.480 which what a name, What a great name, Oberlin Smith. 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:18.360 Oberlin reckoned that you could use magnetization to record sound 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.640 onto a magnetic medium, and it would have to obviously 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:25.920 be a medium that would respond to magnetic fields. So 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:30.000 his suggestion was using like silk thread that had been 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:34.480 coded in steel particles. And here's how he proposed such 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.760 a device would work. So first, for recording, you would 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:41.120 have a microphone. So sound goes into the microphone, like 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:45.360 speaking into the microphone, would then generate an alternating current. 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:48.960 I've done episodes about how microphones work, but essentially what 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:51.040 you're talking about is similar to what we were talking 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:54.200 about with recording with wax cylinders, except instead of the 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:59.040 membrane moving a needle to carve into wax, the vibrating 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:04.200 membrane would interact with an electromagnet and create a current, 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:08.520 a variable current. That current you could then use to 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:11.880 represent the sound. You could actually just send that current 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.720 to an amplifier and then to a speaker, a loud speaker, 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:20.679 and that's how you get microphone to loudspeaker amplified sound. Well, 0:09:20.760 --> 0:09:23.240 in this case, you wouldn't be sending it to a loudspeaker. Instead, 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:26.120 you'd be using that current to go to an electromagnet 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:31.880 create a fluctuating magnetic field. And meanwhile, you would run 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:38.600 the steel dust coded string past this electromagnet, and that 0:09:38.960 --> 0:09:43.800 fluctuating magnetic field would cause the particles on that string 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:47.640 to align a certain way according to whatever the magnetic 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.520 field was at the moment that the string was running 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.520 past it. And because that field is in flux, the 0:09:54.760 --> 0:09:58.800 direction of those particles would vary over time, So the 0:09:58.840 --> 0:10:03.160 string would actually become a record of the magnetic fluctuations 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:07.000 over time. And you know, obviously the rate at which 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:11.240 you pulled the string past this electromagnet would determine the 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:14.560 speed of recording. So to play it back, you would 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:18.600 put the string near a conductor essentially connected to some 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.720 sort of playback device like a speaker, with an amplifier 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.200 in between. Because the signal you're going to get is 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.880 going to be too weak to really drive a speaker. 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:32.360 So the magnetized particles on the string when you pull 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:36.760 it past a conductor, then you can induce current to 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:41.880 flow through that conductor, and that current, when amplified and 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:44.360 then sent to a speaker, would play back the recorded 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:47.840 sound used to create the record on the string in 0:10:47.880 --> 0:10:52.400 the first place. Now, all Obey never build a working 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:57.480 model of his idea. However, a Danish inventor named Valdemar 0:10:57.640 --> 0:11:02.280 Poulsen built upon this note. He either had read about 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:09.439 the previous concept or had come to the same conclusion independently. 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:12.440 It's not clear which is the case. But you know 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:18.720 Obey didn't build it. So Valdemar creates a patent for 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:24.600 a similar invention that he called the telegraphone, and he 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:27.360 got the patent. He was awarded the patent for this 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:31.280 invention in the late eighteen hundreds, and he landed essentially 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:34.880 a licensing deal here in America. He also landed other 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:37.480 deals elsewhere in the world. But in America he got 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.440 some folks to buy into it and they created the 0:11:40.480 --> 0:11:47.319 American Telegraphone Company of Washington, DC. So that device used 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:52.560 like steel wire to record upon, but same sort of 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.120 basic idea. What you would run the steel wire past 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.000 a magnet that would magnetize the wire in various alignments, 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.839 and then running it back across a reader would play 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:07.840 back the recorded medium or media I should say. In 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:10.880 that case, well, the device didn't make that big of 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:13.320 an impact here in the United States. The utility was 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:16.280 somewhat limited, and the idea was that it really would 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:21.839 be more like a business equipment, right. It was meant 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.720 for things like taking notes, for dictation, that kind of thing. 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:30.240 The sound quality wasn't fantastic. It was not really intended 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:34.400 for pre recorded music. It wouldn't do well for that purpose. 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:37.720 The invention actually did a little bit better in Europe 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:39.640 than it did here in the United States. Here in 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:43.000 the US, the business didn't stay around for very long. 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:48.360 But other businesses that also took Polson's patent and licensed it, 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.120 they were able to create a business that stood the 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.040 test of time a bit better than the American version, 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.480 but let's get to the development of magnetic tape. So 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:03.839 this approach which showed that it was viable to use 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:08.360 magnetism as a recording medium or recording method, but the 0:13:08.480 --> 0:13:12.480 steel wire just wasn't really the best approach. In the 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:16.319 mid nineteen twenties, there was an American named Joseph O'Neill 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:19.360 who theorized that you could quote quote a strip of 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:23.400 paper or some other cheap material end quote with magnetic 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.760 material for the purposes of recording audio to it, and 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.280 this would remove the need to use steel wire, or 0:13:30.320 --> 0:13:35.840 steel coated threads, or steel tape. These all had limited utility. 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.920 With the case of thread, there was limited resilience, like 0:13:39.000 --> 0:13:43.280 it could eventually break or fray. So he said, why 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:47.560 not just use a strip of material, coat it with 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:51.840 this magnetic stuff, and then use that for recording. However, 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:56.400 while he had suggested the concept, he didn't appear to 0:13:56.440 --> 0:13:59.520 pursue this in any serious way as far as I 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:03.640 am aware, where he did not produce an actual example 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.520 of this. He just kind of theorized that it could 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:11.760 be done. Whereas a German engineer named Fritz Fleoimer had 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:15.880 developed a method to put metal stripes on cigarette paper 0:14:16.200 --> 0:14:19.480 to want purpose. I do not know. I'm sure there 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:22.680 was a reason to put metal stripes on cigarette paper, 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.240 but I don't know what it was. But I didn't 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:27.920 look it up because I've got enough bunny trails going 0:14:27.960 --> 0:14:30.800 on in this episode anyway. But he reasoned that because 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.000 he had figured out how to do that, how to 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:36.640 put metal stripes on cigarette paper, he could use a 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:41.000 similar approach to coat a strip of paper like paper tape, 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:44.720 with magnetic material, and then the paper tape could be 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.680 used as a recording medium for audio. The process of 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.880 recording and playback would be pretty similar as what it 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.440 was with the telegraphones, so not that different from steel 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:57.440 wire or steel tape. You would still have a right 0:14:57.560 --> 0:15:00.760 head that would use a fluctuating magnetic fee to record 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:06.240 audio signals sent from a microphone to this magnetically coded 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.240 paper tape as it passed by underneath the right head, 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.040 and then later if you wanted to play it back, 0:15:12.080 --> 0:15:15.400 a playback head. A red head would pick up the 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.560 magnetic stripe with its particles in various alignments, and this 0:15:19.600 --> 0:15:23.720 would create the electric current that was created through induction, 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.560 and then that current would get amplified by an amplifier 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.720 and could then be sent as a signal to playback 0:15:30.760 --> 0:15:34.000 sound on a loudspeaker. His work in the late nineteen 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.800 twenties would ultimately lead to the development of the Magnetophone 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.280 K one, which he unveiled in nineteen thirty five, which 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:45.880 was the first practical tape recorder. Okay, so that sets 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:50.720 the first stage for what would become the foundation for 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:53.480 the Walkman. When we come back, I'll talk a little 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.760 bit more about Walkman pre history, and we'll talk about 0:15:56.800 --> 0:16:00.920 Sony itself and how it came about developing the Walkman 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:04.120 device and why it became one of the top fifty 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.600 most influential gadgets in history according to these folks in time. 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:21.320 But first, let's take a quick break. Okay. When we 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:26.520 left off, before the break, I was talking about Fritz Fleoimer, 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:32.000 a German engineer, an Austrian German engineer who developed this 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:36.760 magnetic tape that ultimately he would unveil in nineteen thirty five, 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.760 and that was the Magnetophone K one that was the 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:45.000 first practical tape recorder. But this was also during a 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.920 time where the world was heading into World War Two. Obviously, 0:16:49.040 --> 0:16:53.920 World War two ends up being this massive conflict and 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:59.640 US forces were very much interested in one learning what 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:04.159 technology the Germans had access to and to stealing it. 0:17:05.720 --> 0:17:08.320 Now that's not just the Americans. Everybody was like this, 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:12.720 right in. Any country that perceived that another country had a 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:17.480 technological advantage wanted to remove that advantage from their opponents, 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:20.240 wanted to be able to exploit it themselves. So this 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:24.840 was going on across all enemy lines, like everybody was 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:29.080 spying on and stealing from everyone else, even allies in 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:32.680 some cases. But here US forces were able to get 0:17:32.720 --> 0:17:35.520 possession of some German recording equipment as well as some 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:39.959 German tapes, and soon Americans began developing their own version 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:44.960 of Floimer's technology. They began to create their own magnetic 0:17:45.040 --> 0:17:49.640 tape systems and magnetic tapes themselves. By the late nineteen forties, 0:17:49.960 --> 0:17:54.159 the recording industry had begun to use magnetic tape in 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:58.879 order for music production. Tape actually opened up a ton 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:02.800 of new opportunit unities. For one thing, you could record 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:07.320 several sessions to tape, and then you could physically cut 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:11.000 and edit the tape to put together a master recording. 0:18:11.280 --> 0:18:16.400 You know, maybe you have some various takes that are 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.880 all pretty close to each other. But maybe take three 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:23.680 the band had a really great intro into the song. 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.320 It just sounded really good. But take five has the 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.240 best version of the bridge, and the group really nailed 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.200 the ending of the song just on the second take. Now, 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.680 before the days of magnetic tape, you pretty much had 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.840 to decide which of these takes was your favorite. And 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.880 it may not have all the best qualities of all 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.800 the best takes, but you're stuck with what you've got, 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:50.840 and so you got to pick whichever one is going 0:18:50.880 --> 0:18:52.440 to be the master, and that's what you go with. 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.840 But with tape, with a really good editor, you could 0:18:55.840 --> 0:18:59.520 actually put together a recording that doesn't really exist right 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:03.120 or at least it doesn't exist in one performance. It's 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.199 actually a combination of performances. You could do that if 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.879 you were really good with editing, and if the band 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:11.879 was really consistent, you could actually put this together. And 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.159 you could also do other things, like you could do 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:18.200 multi track recording. You could do overdubbing. That really opened 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:23.080 up a lot of opportunities. Overdubbing means you would record someone, 0:19:23.359 --> 0:19:25.879 Let's say it's a vocalist singing, but it could just 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:29.439 as easily be a musician playing some instrument like guitar 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:32.880 or piano or whatever, and then you've got your recording. 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:36.800 Then you could play the recording back, and meanwhile the 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:41.120 vocalist or musician or whatever could play their own harmonies 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:45.640 along with the original recording, so they're accompanying themselves. They're 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:49.640 accompanying the recorded version of themself live. Then you could 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:53.760 record that. That's overdubbing. This way, you could layer your 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.560 recordings to get a more lush, rich sound than would 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.639 be possible if you were just relying on and you know, 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:03.960 a single artist or band or whatever. You could really 0:20:04.200 --> 0:20:08.000 flesh sounds out that way. The tape machines in those 0:20:08.119 --> 0:20:11.680 days were often these big, real to real devices, and 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.280 so it was not common for your average person to 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:16.200 get hold of one of those. I mean, they were 0:20:16.280 --> 0:20:21.119 sold sometimes to consumers, but they were expensive and to 0:20:21.160 --> 0:20:23.760 get the actual media was hard to There weren't a 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:27.720 lot of places selling real to real tape of performances. 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:31.440 So vinyl records were still the dominant form of recorded 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:34.800 media in the consumer space, but that would change thanks 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:40.200 to a Dutch electronics company called Phillips. Now the Phillips 0:20:40.280 --> 0:20:44.760 Electronics Company dated back to eighteen ninety one sensing a 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.560 theme here, I'm sure like all these technologies and companies 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:51.800 date back to like the late nineteenth century, Brothers Anton 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:55.560 and Gerard Phillips created the Phillips Company in the Netherlands. 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:58.760 Their original focus was on light bulbs, and generally the 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.480 company's philosophy was that they would aim to create high 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:06.440 quality products, even though that meant that their products would 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:08.960 be priced for a fairly limited market, which is a 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:12.640 nice way of saying their stuff was expensive, you know. Now, 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:15.280 for a while, their company was part of a global 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.520 cartel that dominated the light bulb market, and on the 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:22.159 one hand, that did lead to forming certain standards in 0:21:22.200 --> 0:21:24.960 the light bulb industry, but on the other it arguably 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:29.360 prevented competition in the marketplace. Anyway. By the late nineteen forties, 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:32.720 Phillips was starting to get into other types of technologies, 0:21:32.800 --> 0:21:35.400 you know, like electric shavers, but they found out the 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:38.679 profit margins are razor thin. Not really, but I couldn't 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:42.120 resist the pun. But in the nineteen fifties, Phillips got 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.239 into the recording business. They launched a music label. They 0:21:45.320 --> 0:21:48.840 later in the nineteen sixties acquired smaller record labels like 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.720 Mercury Records, and they were also thinking, well, how can 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:55.920 we also be in the business of the medium upon 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:59.600 which recorded music can go. So an engineer at Phillips 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:03.000 named lew Atten's worked out of an office in Belgium 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:06.200 where he was pioneering a new technology that would bring 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:10.280 magnetic tape media to home consumers. This was in nineteen 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:13.760 sixty two, and the invention that he pioneered was the 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:17.159 cassette tape. This tape would use a very thin strip 0:22:17.200 --> 0:22:21.120 of plastic film coded in magnetic material. The film would 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:24.520 wrap around a pair of reels. Those reels would be 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:29.439 encased inside a plastic cartridge. On the outside of this 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:31.920 cartridge you would see like the two holes that'd be 0:22:31.960 --> 0:22:34.840 the center of these two reels. They'd be pronged so 0:22:34.880 --> 0:22:38.560 that they could fit onto a tape player's spokes, and 0:22:38.760 --> 0:22:42.160 a small length of this tape is obviously uncovered. That 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.359 section could be then inserted into a tape recorder for 0:22:45.520 --> 0:22:49.160 recording or playback. The cassette was such a small form 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:54.040 factor that immediately people saw advantages over larger reel to 0:22:54.119 --> 0:22:57.760 reel machines that were far more bulky and expensive. Now, 0:22:57.760 --> 0:23:00.280 the initial plan for the audio cassette was to sell 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:03.199 them as business tools like this was an idea like 0:23:03.359 --> 0:23:06.479 again for dictation and taking notes and that kind of stuff. 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:11.480 It didn't take long, however, before Phillips and other companies said, hey, 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:15.399 what if we put pre recorded music on these and 0:23:15.440 --> 0:23:18.760 sold them like we do with vinyl albums. Now you 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:22.240 might wonder what artist was the first to offer an 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:26.240 album on cassette tape. The answer to that is unclear. 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:31.679 Christian Romer has a blog post on legacybox dot com 0:23:31.720 --> 0:23:35.960 about this and lists a few potential contenders for the 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:40.040 first album on cassette tape. One is Nina Simone's Wild 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:44.479 Is the Wind, Another is Johnny Mathis's The Shadow of 0:23:44.520 --> 0:23:49.000 Your Smile. But my favorite is Eartha Kit's Love for 0:23:49.240 --> 0:23:54.880 Sale album. I love Eartha Kit, what an amazing performer. 0:23:55.200 --> 0:23:58.400 But as Romer points out, no one was really documenting 0:23:58.440 --> 0:24:02.000 the history of albums on cassette when they first started 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:04.600 to become a thing, so it's unclear what the actual 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:07.000 answer is of who was first. I would also like 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:10.120 to point out that music labels likely produced more than 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:13.199 just one album on cassette at a time, because it 0:24:13.200 --> 0:24:15.560 seems like an odd choice to just go with let's 0:24:15.600 --> 0:24:18.200 just do one and see how it goes. Someone's album 0:24:18.240 --> 0:24:21.160 obviously had to be the first off the manufacturing line, 0:24:21.160 --> 0:24:23.600 but I think that's just splitting hairs. At that point, 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:28.200 cassettes were easier to store than vinyl albums, they took 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:31.919 up less space. They did have their own peculiarities. However, 0:24:32.040 --> 0:24:35.200 if you brought a cassette tape near a strong magnet, 0:24:35.359 --> 0:24:37.639 well you just screwed up the recording on your cassette 0:24:37.640 --> 0:24:40.800 tape because the magnetic particles on the tape would realign 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:45.240 to this new powerful magnetic field, so effectively you would 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:49.080 erase your cassette. Anyone who had cassette tapes also knows 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:52.720 the pain of tape getting snagged on something and then 0:24:52.920 --> 0:24:55.720 unreeling from inside the cassette. You would just have this 0:24:56.240 --> 0:25:01.320 massive plastic film just unspooled from out side inside the cassette. 0:25:01.320 --> 0:25:03.840 Now it's outside the cassette. So to fix that you 0:25:03.880 --> 0:25:07.879 would have to do the old standby, which is what 0:25:07.920 --> 0:25:10.640 I call inserting a pencil into the spokes on one 0:25:10.760 --> 0:25:14.160 reel and gently coaxing the tape back into place by 0:25:14.440 --> 0:25:18.359 twisting the pencil slowly, one twist at a time. What 0:25:18.520 --> 0:25:21.800 a joy that was. But you know, while the cassette 0:25:21.840 --> 0:25:26.479