Dead Formats: Ways We Used to Watch and Listen

One of the hottest topics in today’s entertainment revolves around theatrical versus streaming releases for films. It’s merely the latest in an ongoing series of platform slugfests that have been around since the ancestors wound up the Victrola. With the anniversary of the Betamax 50 years ago this month, it’s time to look at a few so-called “dead formats,” some of which surprisingly still exist and have a fanbase so fervent that there are conventions for them.

1. 45s (1949)

The 7-inch record or “45” (so named because it ran at a speed of 45 revolutions per minute on the turntable) also carried the nickname of the “single” as it usually had a single song on each side. The notion of an act releasing a song (the “single”) on the A side with another tune on the B side was a case of the two-sided format defining what would become a standard business practice. 45s were a dominant sales expression for decades until they began to get pushed out in the 1980s by ascent of CDs, cassette singles, and CD singles (which usually offered much more in the way of extras). Though you typically don’t find 45s today in big box stores, they still exist; a number of indie labels like Sub Pop still make them or release special versions for the annual Record Store Day.

2. Cassettes (1958/1963)

The first version of a cassette format became available in 1958, but the more familiar size appeared in 1963. It took a couple of years for albums to start being released on cassette, and there remains a dispute about which one actually went to market first (it’s either Eartha Kitt’s Love for Sale; Nina Simone’s Wild Is the Wind; or Johnny Mathis’s The Shadow of Your Smile, all around 1966). Cassettes sales eventually surpassed vinyl due to their eventual portability (and their recordability), and fairly exploded in sales with the advent of the Walkman. However, the format began to decline as CDs became the prime driver of sales. Cassettes have never completely gone away; in 2014, the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack got a cassette release as a nod to Star-Lord’s Walkman and mix tape.

3. 8-tracks (1964)

Although some super-hip cats like Frank Sinatra had turntables in their cars, the 8-track got a big boost because people could play them in their rides. 8-tracks rode a car stereo boom that made them huge sellers in the U.S., Canada, Japan, and the U.K., among other locales. 8-tracks couldn’t be rewound, but could be advanced to “program” points at the touch of a button. Also, fewer formats have a more satisfying sound that the “chunk” of an 8-track hitting the slot. 1978 was the peak year of 8-track sales, but they spiraled by 1980 thanks to the aforementioned Walkman. Artists still release 8-tracks on occasion, with Hall of Famers like Dolly Parton and Cheap Trick dropping 8s in the past few years.

4 and 5. Betamax (1975) and VHS (1976) Video Tapes

Developed by Sony, Betamax was one of the two primary videotape formats to appear in the 1970s. Thanks to aggressive marketing by Sony, the slightly smaller Betamax was viewed as technically superior to its biggest rival, VHS. What ultimately did Betamax in was that was that JVC, the creator of VHS, was willing to license their tech out to other companies, meaning that everyone from Kodak to Polaroid was making blank VHS tapes that could be used in VCRs. Sony was slow off the snap and tried to keep their format proprietary, a move that slowed down Betamax’s expansion. By 1988, VHS was essentially the winner. However, Betamax kept on making recorders through 2002 and blank tapes into 2016 (which was the same year that VHS production came to a halt).

6. LaserDiscs (1978)

Originally appearing under the equally awesome and decade-appropriate name DiscoVision, LaserDisc came together in a three-way tag team development process that included Pioneer, Philips, and the MCA movie studio. The typically 11.8” disc (there were also two smaller sizes) was the first home video medium to be compatible with “surround sound.” There’s a misconception that LaserDisc was knocked out by the advent of DVDs, but the truth is that the format was already waning in the late 1990s because the players and discs simply cost too much. By 2001, films were no longer being marketed on LaserDisc (outside of Japan, where they remained popular), and by 2009 the format was discontinued.

7. Videodiscs/Capacitance Electronic Discs (1981)

They were big, they were covered in a plastic case, and they made a satisfying “ka-chunk” sound when you locked them into the player. Capacitance Electronic Discs were essentially like vinyl albums that played movies. Videodiscs competed side-by-side with VHS in the Reagan Era, with many early video stores offering them for rental. Despite being a dependable viewing medium (even if you had to flip the disc halfway through a film just like an album), the Videodisc got battered in the market by VHS because they weren’t a recordable medium and it was much easier for stores to display and customers to store the smaller videotapes. RCA put the format to rest in 1986.

8. 8mm Video Formats (1984)

There were technically three types of 8mm video: Video8, Hi8, and Digital8. These were really designed for recording, versus being marketed for movies, and saw wide professional use in television (both in news and entertainment). Eventually smaller than VHS tapes, 8mm cassettes fit easily into a variety of commercially available cameras like the Sony Handycam. Supplanted over time by widely proliferating digital cameras with SD cards and, frankly, smartphones, 8mm camcorders rode into the sunset around 2007.

9. DATs (1987)

Another Sony innovation, Digital Audio Tape was aimed at replacing the analogue cassette. It was a consumer swing-and-miss, based both on price and the waning popularity of cassettes in general as the CD advanced in the market. DATs did catch on with professionals, and still get some use in recording for film, TV, and radio. However, with Sony ceasing the manufacture blank DATs in 2015, it’s likely that they will soon fade. Interestingly, a recovered DAT from the 1990s played an important role in the plot of 2025’s Yellowjackets Season 3, introducing the medium to a whole new audience.

10. Audio File Formats (1991)

Audio file formats like .wav and MP3 began to appear with regularity beginning in 1991 as a medium for computer storage. The MP3 became something of a hotbed of controversy in the late 1990s/early 2000s dug the era of file-sharing service Napster as artists lost money and chart position to the freely traded files. Most of the formats are still in use across platforms, but the advent of iTunes and streaming music services pushed most consumer use back to their regular computing platforms instead of specialty listening devices.

11. MiniDiscs (1992)

The baby cousin of the Compact Disc, MiniDiscs were designed to be both recordable and a viable product in the music market. The format did okay internationally, despite never hitting huge in America, and began to drift when other digital recording platforms popped up in the 2000s. Sony ended sales of most of their players in 2013, but it wasn’t until this year that they finally pulled the plug on producing blanks.

Endangered: Regular DVDs (1996)

The DVD still holds out, despite losing shelf space in many big box stores. DVDs of new film releases are widely available online, though they may one day be supplanted by the Blu-ray and 4K formats.

Bonus Zombie Format: Phonograph Records (Late 1800s)

The first needle dropped in the late 1800s and that world continues to spin. Though vinyl had a rough late 1980s and 1990s, the format clawed its way back via collectors and boutique releases. Today, you can find modern vinyl releases everywhere, and artists like Taylor Swift move tens of thousands of units on their new albums (her Midnights sold 80,000 black circles in 2022 alone).