Portability

The biggest advantage, and the biggest selling point, for 8 track tapes was portability.  Imagine you were getting ready to go to the beach in 1974.  While getting into your swimsuit, collecting your chairs and blanket and stuffing your cooler full of beer, you could listen to your favorite Rolling Stones tape on your General Electric home player.

Once you were all packed up, maybe you’d realize that you still wanted to listen to your favorite Rolling Stones tape.  No problem, you could just pop the tape into your Motorola car player.

Once you got to the beach and you realized, man, that’s a good tape, I think I’ll listen to it again.  Again, no problem, you did remember to pack your portable Soundesign Super 8 player, didn’t you?  Imagine your favorite tape playing while laying on your beach blanket.