National Eight Track Tape Day:

Celebrated on April 11th, every year. The day is observed to celebrate the Eight Track Tape.

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Why National Eight Track Tape Day?

This national holiday is celebrated to recollect and rejoice the musical era of the sixties and seventies prided with greatest singers and wonderful music albums.

How we can Observe National Eight Track Tape Day:

If you are an antique collector and if you still like to use eight-track tapes, below are the few tips to take care of it.
• Do not try to open the plastic cartridge from the 8 track tape.
• Always place the tape in the slipcase
• Remove the tape from the player when it is not in use.
• At periodic intervals, clean the player for greater music quality.
• Don’t touch the tape inside the cartridge as it results in dropouts and some other scratches.

Below given are some common problems that occur in eight track tape and the repair solutions for it.

• The most generous problem in the eight-track tape is that glue worn out from the metal foil piece resulting in separating the two ends of the tape which makes the play to get stuck. The function of the foil is to indicate the player that it is the time to toggle between programs. A simple solution to this problem is you have to open the plastic cartridge re-glue the metal foil with glue that holds the two ends of the tape together.
• Another problem that arises in the eight-track tape is that the foam pressure pad is worn and turns into 8 track black tar. If it happens to your tape purchase some foam, cut it into the desired shape and place some clear tape over the foam which helps the 8 track tape to have an even surface to glide on.

At this national day let us learn how to make our own eight-track tape to salute this invention.

• Buy a good 8-track unit that records, fix it to your stereo system. By rearranging and chopping a blank 80-minute tape you can easily replicate any album onto an 8-track tape. Stick a label over the eight-track tape to list programs and songs that are preferred by you. You can separate the album into fourths, fading out the current song so that the program can be changed due to which next song fades in.

You may also play the tape when you need it from the splice, open it and cut out the extra tape to achieve the exact length you need. Delight your party time with your friends by enjoying the songs from your own eight-track tape.

Few ways that you can get 8 track tapes even now:

• Estate sales are conducted to sell used equipments from the families who owned previously. You can find information about it in the newspaper classifieds. If you are lucky you may get 8 track tapes along with the stereo players.

• Check there are any thrift stores present in your surrounding area. At the maximum, they may have 8 track tapes at the record section, also look around the video game section and book section as well.

• You can buy them from yard sales by noticing from newspaper ads.

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Interesting Facts About National Eight Track Tape Day:

An 8 tracks tape possess a continuous loop system formed by a quarter of a one-inch thick magnetic tape. A program in a tape actually consumes 2 tracks, thus results to record 4 songs per tape.
• Some artists still use eight-track tapes to release their albums.In 2011, an U. S. band RTB2 released an album ‘We Are a Strange Man’ using an eight-track tape to bring back 70s effect. Popular American Rock Bands like ‘The Melvins’ and ‘Cheap Trick’ released their live albums in eight-track tapes for a limited time.
• In the year 1988, Fleetwood Mac’s Greatest Hits was considered as the final album released on eight-track tape.
• If you are collecting tapes of famous titles like the ‘Licensed to Ill’ or ‘American Fool’, you can get it only from recording clubs.
• In 1971, Daisuke Inoue invented the first karaoke machine and he named it as “8-juke”. It consisted of 8 track tape player, amplifier, coin box, and microphone. It is said that Inoue had sold nearly 25000 of his 8-jukeboxes.
• In 1970s, 13 tapes or a record were sold for a penny at Colombia house. It also had the provision to supply tapes through mail orders.
• In 1964, the eight-track tape was invented by a consortium composed of Bill Lear from Lear Jet Corporation, Ampex from Ford Motor Company, Radio Corporation of America Visitor records, Motorola and General Motors.
• In 1980, OMNI Entertainment system, an electronic standalone game system developed an electronic quiz machine using an eight-track tape. It playbacks the questions, instructions as analog signals and it used magnetic tapes to load the right answers as digital signals to calculate the score.
• Four programs are installed in an eight-track tape which made the tape player to physically move its reading head which helps listener to switch between programs.

History of National Eight Track Tape Day:

Origin and creator of Eight Track Tape Day is unknown