Stereo 8, commonly known as the 8-track cartrige, 8-track tape, or 8-track, is a magnetic tape sound recording technology, popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. Stereo 8 was created in 1964 by a consortium led by Bill Lear of Lear Jet Corporation, along with Ampex, Ford, Motorola and RCA Victor Records. It was a further development of the similar Stereo-Pak 4-track cartridge created by Earl Muntz. A later quadraphonic version of the format was known as Quad 8 or Q8.