The
Digital Compact Cassette (
DCC) is a
magnetic tape sound recording format introduced by
Philips and
Matsushita in late 1992 and marketed as the successor to the standard
analog Compact Cassette. It was also a direct competitor to
Sony's
MiniDisc (MD) but neither format toppled the then ubiquitous
analog cassette despite their technical superiority. Another competing format, the
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) had by 1992 also failed to sell in large quantities (although it was established in recording studios)—DCC was envisaged as a cheaper alternative to DAT. DCC shared a similar form factor to analog cassettes, and DCC recorders could play back either type of cassette. This
backward compatibility allowed users to adopt digital recording without rendering their existing tape collections obsolete.