Nauhakasetteja

Nauhakasetteja, commonly known as cassette tapes, are an analog audio storage medium. They consist of two small reels of magnetic tape, one on each side of a protective casing. Audio is recorded onto and played back from the magnetic tape as it moves between the two reels. Cassette tapes were introduced by Philips in 1963 and gained widespread popularity in the 1970s and 1980s for home recording and personal music playback.

The format allowed for portability and relatively easy recording and editing of sound. Music albums were commonly released on cassette, and many people used blank tapes to record music from the radio or other sources. The compact size and affordability made them a dominant audio format for decades. Cassette players, ranging from portable Walkmans to larger stereo systems, were ubiquitous.

While offering convenience, the audio quality of cassette tapes is generally considered inferior to later digital formats like CDs. The tape could degrade over time, leading to a loss of fidelity, and external magnetic fields could corrupt the recorded data. The mechanical nature of tape players also meant that playback could be affected by factors like speed fluctuations. Despite their decline in mainstream use with the advent of digital music, cassette tapes have experienced a niche resurgence in recent years, particularly within independent music scenes and among audiophiles seeking a different listening experience.