Published
Mon, Mar 15, 2021, 10:35
- The Dutch engineer's work profoundly changed music production and consumption.
Lou Ottens, inventor of the cassette tape, died last week aged 94.
Ottens was employed by Philips, the Dutch multinational that pioneered consumer audio technologies throughout the 20th century. After being hired in 1952, he went on to head its audio and video divisions, playing a leading role in developing the compact cassette and portable tape recorders during the '60s. Cassettes and personal recorders would go on to deeply impact music creation and consumption, facilitating portable, affordable DIY recordings, taping of radio broadcasts and the creation of personalised mixtapes. Ottens also lead teams that developed the CD format in the '70s.
As the Guardian noted, Ottens remained sceptical of the resurgence of vinyl and cassette formats: "Nothing can match the sound of the CD...," he told Dutch paper NRC Handelsblad. "It is absolutely noise and rumble-free. That never worked with tape... I have made a lot of record players and I know that the distortion with vinyl is much higher. I think people mainly hear what they want to hear."
Ottens died on Saturday, March 6th, in the Dutch village of Duizel.