Cassette tapes have come a long way from the days when one tape could barely hold a full Grateful Dead show. Last week, Sony announced that it had developed a magnetic tape that achieves 74-times the recording density of current mainstream storage tapes. The tape can hold 185 terabytes per cartridge, the highest recording density in the world.

To put that figure in perspective, 185 terabytes is enough to house 60 million three-minute songs, according to Mashable. The entire collection of the Library of Congress would only add up to 10 terabytes.

“In recent years, the rapid recovery of data systems such as databases and data servers following natural disasters, as well as secure management of information has become ever more important,” said Sony in a news release. “The expansion of cloud services and the creation of new markets to utilize big data have led to a growing need for a data storage media which can store large amounts of information.”

The electronics giant achieved this revolution in data storage by harnessing a new vacuum thin film forming technology, which uses sputter deposition to generate multiple layers of crystals of uniform orientation on a super-thin polymer film. By “optimizing sputter conditions,” Sony could minimize disparities in crystalline length and growth, enabling far higher storage capabilities than current mainstream storage tapes.

“Sony will continue to work towards commercializing this next generation tape storage media, as well as the development of increasingly advanced thin layer deposition technologies based on the sputter method, with the aim of increasing recording densities even further,” said the company.