Vendor page
Soundtrack to people's lives: the Philips compact cassette
Philips Museum, n.d.
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- The Philips museum's history of the compact cassette, from the 1961 project in Hasselt to the 1963 public debut at the Berlin radio show. It also lists the 1966 and 1967 cassette products, including a mini-cassette for dictation machines.
- How much weight it carries
- A manufacturer's own history. It is the company's account of its product, so it is reliable for dates of Philips products but not neutral about the format's success.
Facts taken from this source
- Philips first presented its pocket recorder and the compact cassette to the public at the 1963 IFA radio show in Berlin.
“The new device, the Philips Pocket Recorder EL 3300 and the accompanying cassette EL1903 were first presented to the public at the Internationale Funkausstellung [IFA] 1963 in Berlin.” (Stories page: the first Philips cassette recorder (1963))
- Philips introduced a mini-cassette for dictation machines in 1967, a year after it built a cassette recorder into a portable radio.
“In 1966, the cassette recorder was built into a portable radio. A year later followed the first car radio-cassette recorder combination and the mini-cassette for dictation machines.” (Stories page: the timeline of cassette products)