In 1966, in-home 8-track players were created so that consumers could take their music everywhere, transferring it from their car to their house. The 8-track continued to spread throughout American culture, its compact and lightweight system allowing it to be marketed towards all audiences.
Now with competition, Muntz’s 4-track cartridge stood no chance, becoming obsolete by 1970 due to the 8-track’s overpowering popularity. Starting with only 3 popular models in 1965, the Thunderbird, Mustang and Lincoln, Ford offered customers the option to include the 8-track stereo in their vehicles, and by 1967, all Ford vehicles came with this option. Once the 8-track became established for its portability, it was picked up and promoted by the automobile industry, specifically the Ford Motor Company. Although Miller and Lear touted this 8-track version for its musical storage capabilities, there was a slight loss of sound quality within these tapes because of background noise caused by the tape movement. This new cartridge, with a small piece of foil spliced in between each track on the tape, allowed for fastforwarding and switching between tracks. Miller and Lear improved upon the previous cartridge enough so that this new 8-track system could play a total of 8 tracks, with 4 sets of 2 tracks each. The rubber and nylon roller allowed for enough tension within the cartridge to pull the tape along without damaging it. In Miller’s new design, a central reel fed the tape across the opening of the 8-track and wound the tape back onto the same reel. Also citing Muntz’s car stereo success, Miller sought to produce a cartridge that would playback in automobiles easier, and for a longer time span.
Originally, the 8-track had been a tape cartridge similar to Eash’s Fidelipac, but Miller improved upon Eash’s design, replacing a fixed, plastic roller with a rubber and nylon roller, allowing for easier mechanical capabilities and better sound quality. Thus from these cartridges, in 1964 the 8-track was created by Ralph Miller, an associate of Bill Lear from the Lear Jet Corporation.
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