New Cassette Tapes Features Revealed; Can Store 47 Million Songs

If CD players are a thing of the past, then cassette tapes and players must be considered ancient for today's generation.

However, with the development of a new kind of cassette tape, it's probable that the "ancient" technology may be finding a renaissance in this digital age.

"Where will we get the devices to play such things today?" you wonder. Before you raise 1,001 objections and reasons why this technology doesn't deserve a revival, hear out what Sony has to say, as noted by CNN.

"This isn't one of those rattling plastic tapes you used to compile your ultimate summer road-trip jams and, too often, were probably forced to rewind with a pencil," the news source said. "Sony's record-breaking magnetic tape technology allows it to store 180 terabytes of data on a single cartridge. That's the same amount of storage as 1,184 iPod Classics, Apple's roomiest music player, which can hold about 40,000 songs. Using that number, Sony's new cassette could technically store about 47.3 million songs of its own."

"If you're more of a movie buff, think of it this way. The cartridge, which stores 148GB of data per inch of tape, has room for 3,700 Blu-ray discs full of your favorites," CNN added.

Now those are mind-boggling figures that not even a USB or an external hard drive can match.

Sony's newest innovation, the result of a collaboration with IBM, breaks a 2010 record set by a Fuji-developed tape that could store 35 terabytes of data.

The new technology was introduced during the InterMag Europe magnetics conference in Germany over the weekend.

"In very simple terms, the technology involves shrinking the microscopic magnetic particles on tape that store data. On average, the new particles are 7.7 nanometers wide. There are 10 million nanometers in one centimeter," the American news agency explained.

The said tape is reportedly "unwieldy" to use as it takes "longer than digital storage devices and players." As such, this tape is best used to back up massive databases than personal music or movie collections.

Sony was noted as saying that it is eyeing to market the innovation for commercial use and will continue to enhance it.