The manufacture of eight-track players, which began at Motorola in Illinois, shifted almost entirely to Japan between 1965 and 1975, recalling the earlier movement of open-reel tape recorders to Japanese manufacturers in the early 1960s.  There were a few efforts to revive the flagging American tape recorder industry, but to little avail as the foreign firms cranked players out in huge numbers using cheap labor and favorable import regulations.

Many US electronics manufacturers (even the prestigious Ampex Corporation) would find it more profitable to sell Japanese-made players under their own brands. Nonetheless Quatron Inc., a Maryland firm, had some success making the (now coveted by collectors) Model 48 automatic 8-track changer, but its star soon faded.

By the time the major record labels stopped offering new releases on 8-track in the early 1980s, there were no remaining domestic manufacturers of home or auto players. Conditions were quite different in the manufacture of tape and cartridges, where American firms held on to most of the domestic market.

The story of the eight track ended with both a bang and a whimper. The major record labels announced their decision to stop supporting the eight track format between 1981 and 1983. However, some continued to issue top-10 pop albums on eight track  for some time. Also, eight track tapes of most popular releases were available well into the 1980s via the mail order record clubs. Also, there were numerous small labels that supported the format for some years. Further, eight tracks of new music have appeared several times over the years since then.