More on 8-track..and audio cart!

Left---an 8-track tape (facing "up"). On the right, an 'audio cart' for radio/TV stations, etc... facing down.

Carts (in stereo) had 3 tracks...left, right and cue. The cue track made the cart stop, or re-cue. 8-tracks are spliced with a magnetic strip that made the player change 'tracks'.

What are the 8 tracks? 4 stereo pairs. You play one of the 4, then move the heads down to the next pair as the tapes does another full pass.

Long and short 'audio carts' were available, some only 30 seconds. Most 8-tracks of course contained much more audio 'information' (a whole 35 minute album!)