The audio cassette was invented in Belgium, in Hasselt, by Gilbert Mestdagh and his team for the Philips company. This Philips audio cassette had the distinctive feature of being very small compared to the other technologies of the time, enabling it to be transported anywhere. The invention was widely circulated by the company, leading to its rapid worldwide use. The original purpose of the cassette was to be able to record your own voice, but it then became used as a recorder, in particular to record music that was being played on the radio. Consequently, it was the creation of this audio cassette that led to the first illegal copies of music.
