Billboard via Google turns out to be a good resource, too. There's a 1967 cluster of articles about
Mercury then having 200+ titles out, some licensed from Verve and Decca. On the same page, Fine
Recording announces the duplication operation has installed 10 cassette duplicators and loaders,
with output not specified but likely along the lines of the 8-track operations (a few thousand units
per shift). Ampex had also announced cassette duping operation in Illinois, and I think someone was
starting up on the west coast.

By the way, regarding these Billboard articles ... I agree with George B-N, that they likely won't
be up there forever. The way around the no-print thing is cumbersome but effective. Take screen
shots and then stitch them together in Photoshop, save as a PDF if desired. I did this with a big
feature section they did on Enoch Light when he started Project 3 Records, it took a couple of
hours. Definitely not the most convenient! But, I got nice 11x17 printouts for my files. The
enabling feature is that Google did pretty good scanning, so if you blow up to maximum magnification
and then fit the Photoshop'd image to 11x17 printing, the resolution is effectively somewhere north
of 100dpi, maybe as high as 144dpi.

-- Tom Fine

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steven Smolian" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 8:15 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Of interest -- cassettes hit the US market, Billboard feature


> Wikipedia has a pretty good entry for cassettes.
>
> Steve Smolian
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Association for Recorded Sound Discussion List
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lou Judson
> Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 3:09 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Of interest -- cassettes hit the US market,
> Billboard feature
>
> Here in America I was using cassettes regularly in 1971. I had a primitive
> Sony that I carried on my bicycle while commuting to work...
>
> But then, I have only ever seen three 8-track decks in my whole life!
> My girlfriend's father had a four track deck in his car in the late 1960s.
>
> <L>
>
> On Jan 24, 2011, at 7:00 PM, David Breneman wrote:
>
>
> 1968? Wow. The first time I saw a cassette player in a car was in Germany
> in 1976. I didn't see cassettes start to make inroads on the 8-Track until
> at least 1977. And mass-produced cassettes sounded worse than 8-Tracks
> until Dolby gained currency in, when? - I guess around 1978.
>
> It's interesting that these pages say up front that they are sponsored by
> Philips/Norelco. Maybe they were seeing things as rosy for the cassette a
> little earlier than an objective reporter would have.
>