RCA Sound Tape Cartridge by Andreas Pendl

Original article from the German Fan Club Magazine “Graceland” #193 May/June 2010

Translated and updated on March 12, 2026 by Andreas Pendl

RCA Sound Tape Cartridge / Cartridge Magazine Loading

The “mother” of the audio compact cassette had already been invented at the end of the 50s – an extremely rare and almost unknown audio format.

While doing research for my CD reviews I saw pictures of a strange looking cassette version of “Elvis Is Back” inside Jerry Osborne’s “Presleyana Price Guide VI” from 2007. He mentions the “Cartridge Magazine Loading” format, which had just been available for 2 years and he further states, that this was the only Elvis album on this type of tape. It was then when I became inquisitive, so I looked through many of my hundreds of books and searched the Internet for more information. Finally, I found a forgotten system, of which more than one Elvis release exist.

In 1958, after four years of development, RCA Victor presented their new invention – the “Cartridge Tape”, an 1/8 inch tape within a plastic cartridge running at a speed of 3 3/4 ips. The magnetic tape had 4 tracks, it was possible to record 60 minutes in stereo (30 min per side) or double time in mono.

This RCA tape cartridge with 2 integrated reels measuring 126 x 182 x 12 mm was about 3 times bigger than the well known “Audio Tape Compact Cassette” (CC) presented by Philips in 1963 – first pre-recorded cassettes being released not before 1965.
However, at the end of the 50s the RCA cartridge had some advantages over the 7 1/2 ips Reel-to-Reel tapes used at that time: There was no need for a second blank reel and you could load it very easily without merging and rewinding. The tape was safe inside the cartridge and ready to be played at any time. That’s why this format had first been advertised as “(Easy) Magazine Loading Cartridge”. It was also called “Sound Tape Cartridge” and “Stereo Tape Cartridge”.

You should not mix it up with the 4-Track “Stereo-Pak Cartridge” of Muntz who presented his one-reel tape in 1962.

RCA discounted the Muntz system, and supported the 8-Track tape of Lear, which was invented for his jets. This cartridge also had but one reel, tape and speed being the same as the RCA cartridge tape. The 8-track tape cartridge was presented by a consortium of several companies in 1964 and eventually, one year later, RCA released the first albums on this type.

In June 1959, RCA Victor released a “Tape Cartridge” catalog, which listed 26 tapes and announced further 23 albums on this format. You couldn’t find Elvis then. The first players/recorders had been delivered in August 1959, but in small quantities. In 1961 portable recorders and pure players were also available and RCA founded a tape club. This revolutionary and ingenious system wasn’t really accepted. One of the reasons mentioned was that music companies and some dealers, too, didn’t like the fact, that everybody could easily record music at home. Studios were still using the reel-to-reel tapes and the majority preferred buying records. So, RCA already quit producing their system at the end of 1961. From then until 1964 the Tape Cartridge was produced in license by Bell Sound.

RCA catalogs “Living Stereo Tape Cartridges”

RCA catalog 2/61 lists
Elvis Is Back KPS-3127

Page 11 of the 1963 catalog and page 13 of the 1964 catalog list 3 Elvis albums:

Elvis Is Back KPS-3127
G.I. Blues KPS-3130
Blue Hawaii KPS-4027

The numbers had the following system:
P stands for popular, C for classical music. The first number multiplied with 10 indicates the approximate playing time, so 3 is for approx. 30 and 4 for approx. 40 minutes. Although the “Blue Hawaii” album didn’t reach 40 minutes of running time, they used the number 4.

David Petrelle mentions the 3 existing cartridge tapes in his “Solid Gold Elvis” discography, but additionally lists a 4-Track tape of “Elvis For Everyone” with the number KPS-4073.
He gives March 1966 as the release date for all 4 cassettes. This cannot be right!

I asked David about this. He told me that he had access to RCA vaults when putting together his extensive book, first published in 1998. Those “listing notices” of the company are not complete, some of them had been updated later and the copyright date is not the same as the actual release date.

Unfortunately, “Solid Gold” also has some misprints and mixed-up lines, therefore, this source also is not exact enough.

I assume, that he took the information about the release date from a recording information sheet, that, among other notes added later, state: KPS-4073 Elvis For Everyone! MARCH 1966 RELEASE

Since the RCA catalogs from 1961, 1963 and 1964 had already listed the existing 3 albums and the system is said to have been quit in 1964, I assume that the release date of 1966 is wrong.

The vinyl album “Elvis For Everyone” had been released in July 1965, after the end of this first cartridge tape format. In late 1965 RCA released the first 8 track stereo tapes including 3 Elvis albums. The 8 track tape of “Elvis For Everyone” was released in January 1966.

Referring to the added notes on the recording information sheet it seems that someone considered also releasing this album on the first cassette tape format, but this plan was most likely rejected.

At the moment I am the lucky owner of the 3 known titles: Elvis Is Back / G.I. Blues / Blue Hawaii.

RCA Living Stereo Tape Cartridges catalog 1963..

RCA Living Stereo Tape Cartridges catalog 1963 page 11 Elvis…

RCA Living Stereo Tape Cartridges catalog 1964 page 13 Elvis…

Any further hints from collectors are very welcome!