Interesting.

You know, LPs also have the advantage of permitting one to skip to a 'track' much faster and easily than one would for a reel.

I believe a helical scan is also used in VHS tapes.

As far as commercial success, if you look back at the history of commercial standards it is one of restriction rather than unlimited use. The 640K DOS barrier. In order to increase value and derive revenue, you have to limit production.

Having a 4 hour "album" doesn't drive the user to consume lots of discs. In this same sense, the ridiculous iPod/iTunes format. Selling single 3Meg mp3 tracks for download -- in an age where Internet connectivity, streaming and large scale storage were growing -- seemed hopelessly backward. And yet, people bought it, saving a company that had failed to convince people to buy PCs at several times the cost of their competitors.

People bought Tunes because it set up a system which had both a simple fixed part -- the pod -- and a low cost, consumable unit, the iTune, to keep the revenue going. Now take the opposite...Napster....which gave you anything and everything for free and tried to make some licensing fees by calling itself a broadcasting system. Failed. See, you can't give away the store if you want to stay in business. Big corporations know this and so tease the money out of you in dribs and drabs.

Maybe if the Tefifon had come up with FastFons...little 5 minute single tapes....and you could stack them together like interlocking Lego...bright colors...a carrying belt for bobby soxers...well, who knows.

This is so wonderfully absurd and I must have one

@2, that is the most lucid comment i've ever seen you post. Perhaps you aren't the total fucking moron you seem most often. I could be wrong.

That was really neat!