8-track cartridge

The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic-tape sound-recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, which antedated the 8-track system, surpassed it in popularity for recorded music.

The format was commonly used in cars and was most popular in the United States and Canada, and to a lesser extent, in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Japan. One advantage of the 8-track tape cartridge was that it could play continuously in an endless loop, and did not have to be ejected, turned around, and reinserted to play the entire tape. After about 80 minutes of playing time, the tape would start again at the beginning. Because of the loop, no rewind is possible; the only options the user has are: play, fast forward, record, and program (track) change.

The Stereo 8 Cartridge was created in 1965 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation, along with Ampex, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Motorola, and RCA Victor Records (RCA—Radio Corporation of America).