Playtapes-anyone remember these?

Just curious.

 

I'm 47 and I can not recall ever seeing one of those before. Interesting technology, though.

 

yep...had a player and a few Beatles tapes, an Animals hits and other stuff I don't remember. I have no idea where any of it went.

 

I had that player and 4 tapes, the Beatles: Meet the Beatles, Something New, Yesterday and Today and 1 by The Animals

 

The tapes only held 4 songs from an LP. Worst quality consumer format since cylinders. The Beatles IV was a neat little item, however.

 

Very rare. I only know of them cuz I'm an 8-track collector and they were a distant cousin of the format. See this write up about Playtapes on 8-track Heaven (the only 8-track website that matters):
http://8trackheaven.com/?q=2-track-tape

 

I got a Playtape for Christmas when I was about 7-8 in the late 60's. My memories are hazy but I think I got a Beatles and a Herb Alpert tape along with it. But I remember one tape jammed up. I probably lost interest in it and went back to buying 45's.

Looking back I wish my parents would have bought me a portable cassette with AM/FM radio instead!

 

I thought they were a unique curio and I still have some, along with a player that still works! I have Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, some Kinks, even used to have a Pet Sounds! It really was the worst format since cylinders...

 

I had an Association Birthday and a Mason Williams.

 

I had a bunch of them, but I still have a player or two. There wasn't much room on their labels, so the most they would say was "Help The Beatles", etc.

 

Very interesting! How is the sound quality? Good signal to noise, or cheap rubbish like 8 tracks?

 

Very poor sound quality, 4 songs at most, the players didn't have much output.

 

Not much to look at even if only as conversation pieces.

 

8-tracks were a huge step up in quality. (A sentence I never thought I'd say)

 

I had a player and a few tapes. Nothing impressive about it. One of the tapes had The Supremes, that's all I can remember. Probably got tossed out when my family moved in July of '69.

 

I had a player, and a small collection of tapes. I was amazed at how well-represented the Beatles were in the format. Was there some mention in the Hunter Davies book of Playtapes?

Sadly, my player soon started "eating" the playtapes, and the Phillips portable cassette recorder was now available, so I switched my allegiance. I did keep my remaining (uneaten) "Rubber Soul" playtape until last year, when I gave it as a gift to a fellow Beatles fan.

 

I had an ultra-ultra-rare "Wichita Train Whistle" PlayTape....sold it a while back. I still have a sealed "Best of the Lovin' Spoonful" PlayTape (offers welcome!).

 

Horrible format. My little sister had one for a few months around Christmas of 1966. It broke soon after, and my folks got her a bona fide cassette player, which held up for many years.

 

This is one format that I've never ever seen in person through all my years of flea market/thrift store haunting. I'm assuming it was either extremely unpopular or perhaps more widely available on a region-to-region basis. Since the albums were limited to so few songs, did they issue "Volume 2" tapes with the missing tracks?

 

When I moved 10 years ago I threw out all but one of my tapes thinking they were worthless. One of them was Wonderwall which I now see fetches about 500 bucks! Also had an Ultimate Spinach tape.

 

I had them back in the sixties, most of the Beatles, Hendrix, Traffic, etc. I still have three players and about 20 tapes but no Beatles which I sold for $$$. Wish I still had Zappa's We're only in it for the Money.

 

None of these ever came out as Playtapes.

 

except the Beatles of course

 

my apologies-there were a few Hendrix ones. I'll just shut up now.

 

Frank's Meager Beatles page on Playtapes including values
http://www.friktech.com/btls/tapes/ptp.htm

The sixties were an amazing decade for the development of audio formats. As the decade began, the only tape format available to consumers was the reel-to-reel (or open-reel) tape. In 1962-3, cartridge and cassette systems were both introduced. With the compact cassette considered largely unsuitable for music until 1966, Earl Muntz’s four-track cartridge quickly came to dominate the market. The four-track had been created to use in automobiles, and within a few years the format was widespread. Bill Lear had worked for Muntz but was dissatisfied with the format; his eight-track tape came on the scene in 1965.
That leads us to 1966: the year of Pet Sounds, Revolver, and the PlayTape. For at least twenty years, Frank Stanton had been determined to make a tape format that was portable. As four tracks and eight tracks gained in popularity, Stanton pitched the idea of a format that was not restricted to homes or automobiles. He marketed portable tapes to Smith Corona as a means of eliminating what they called in advertising “the silent letter.” Stanton believed that people would stop writing on paper – instead sending taped messages to one another. Within a year, his idea was regarded as a failure.
The PlayTape, however, was a seasonal success. Stanton and his partners formed PlayTape Inc. and set up offices at the twelve-story 1115 Broadway building in New York City. Together they designed several portable tape players and what they called an improvement in the tape cartridge. The PlayTape had a twin-track design, meaning that it consisted of two (mono) channels, on a one-eighth-inch wide tape. Since the need to rewind tapes was considered undesirable, all PlayTapes had a continuous-loop design (like their four-track and eight-track counterparts). However, the PlayTape was smaller and slimmer – making it easily portable. With a hand-held, battery-operated machine, you could take your music to the beach with you. The size, however, meant that no more than 24 minutes of music could be contained on one tape.
Most people have never seen a Playtape and wouldn't know what to make of one if they saw it. These tapes resembled a miniature 8 track or 4 track and typically contained four songs in mono. Playtapes with white shells (in the 3000 series) were intended to have eight songs; Playtapes with red shells were intended to have two songs like a single; although they were advertised as coming soon, it is not known whether any red-shelled "singles" tapes were ever manufactured. Only one known Beatles Playtape has a white shell.
PlayTapes were the precursor to the cassette single of the 1980's-90's. You'd carry the machine with you to the beach or in your car. The first Beatles Playtapes appeared on the scene in June, 1967. These continued to be manufactured until 1969, when stereo Playtapes were supposed to become available. There are at least nineteen known players for Playtapes; these vanished mysteriously, never to reappear on the market. Apparently, when Capitol was working on its licensing for tapes in 1969, they decided to cancel the Playtapes. Perhaps this contributed to the death of the format, which does not seem to have survived much beyond that point.

Label Styles: As the company expanded, they changed the graphics of their label/cover designs. The earliest tapes (late-1966) had covers that were all-brown with black print. Since Capitol Records had no deal with PlayTape at this time, there are no Beatles tapes with this configuration. By 1967, the company sought to add contrast to the covers that would make the artist and song selections stand out. Tapes made during this period have brown backgrounds along with white boxes. Once again, there are no Beatles tapes in this configuration. From Spring, 1967, to about November, 1967, PlayTapes have a simpler black-and-white motif. The first Capitol tapes appeared in June, and so the first Beatles PlayTapes have black-and-white covers. Late in 1967, photographs of the artists were added to the labels for the first time. Tapes made from that time until late Spring, 1968, have a colored background (red, orange, rust, beige, yellow, light green, olive green, blue, or magenta) and a picture of the artist. In mid-1968, PlayTape began using the stereo catalog numbers on their labels; previous issues showed the mono catalog number. Replacing the larger colored background, a smaller bar of color is commonly found across the middle of the label of this issue. These releases came out as the format was declining in popularity, though, and are less-frequently found by collectors. Finally, PlayTapes made from the beginning of 1969 through about July of that year have graphics on them resembling the LP cover. These are the most artistic and the hardest to find.