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[–] TrialsAndTribulation 0 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago 

There were practical reasons for having one of those. A lot of us had cars with an eight track installed, and often the stereo was worth more than the car. It was more economical to buy one of those little jobbers rather than go the trouble of replacing the eight track. Also, if you owned a home stereo receiver with an built in eight track, that thing was your go-to.

On the other hand, eight track was shit. It was like having a cassette with four sides. Often songs faded out before the next track would start, then the song would fade in again. Utter crap. But if that was all you could afford, it was better than nothing.

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[–] Jock_Sniffer 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

True. That was incredibly bush league how some songs were split between tracks on an eight-track. Cassettes represented a great leap forward by comparison.

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[–] TrialsAndTribulation 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

It's been nearly half a century, but I still remember certain songs as they would fade out, then the track changer would click, then the song would fade back in. "Days of Future Passed" was one of my favorites and I only had it on eight track. There were two tracks that were split like that and it torqued me whenever I played that tape.

Bush league indeed. The cassette had a format that never required splitting songs, and because it had two sides, it was familiar to those who played vinyl records. The CD was the next great leap, having a format that would play a full 74 minutes. If I recall correctly, Sony settled on the 74 minute limitation because they wanted to use Beethoven's 9th symphony as a proof of concept and wanted it to play in its entirety.