Hello Dat: A new audiotape is on the way

Heralded by music lovers but feared by the music industry, the next wave of audio technology is about to hit U.S. shores. It is, as usual, made in Japan. The talk of this month's giant Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was digital audio tape, or DAT. It seemed that just about every electronics company was showing off DAT players and recorders, and half a dozen firms said they would be selling machines in the U.S. by the summer. That prospect alarms record-company executives, who are afraid that DAT will induce more people to record their friends' albums rather than buy...