The advancement from cassette tapes to compact discs was a very considerable jump in terms of sound quality and use of modern technology. Cassettes were very popular through the 1980-s and into the early 90-s. The cassette tapes are a fairly basic design to mimic a smaller version of a reel to reel pathway. The cassette has an exposed area at the bottom that allows the player-s read head access to the tape. Some minor drawbacks that they have are with moving parts, there is always a chance of failure of one of them through wear and tear; another major point of failure would come from actual physical damage to the tape itself either from stretching over time or getting wrinkled.
Compact Discs came along and they introduced optics to the equation. The sound quality is head and shoulders above cassettes. Along with the music, it became possible to include software with the music, bringing to market what became known as ECDs (Enhanced CD). Artists could include video footage, small games, or just images that could be run on special cd players (that connect to your TV) or computers. The major issue many find with CDs is that when they get scratched they would get skips or just not play like a record would. Overall, they are a more durable medium because you could actually wash them if need be to remove fingerprints or other contaminants.
