cut a tape

vi. To write a software or document distribution on magnetic tape for
shipment. Has nothing to do with physically cutting the medium! Early
versions of this lexicon claimed that one never analogously speaks of
cutting a disk , but this has since been reported as live usage. Related
slang usages are mainstream business's cut a check , the recording
industry's cut a record , and the military's cut an order. All of these
usages reflect physical processes in obsolete recording and duplication
technologies. The first stage in manufacturing an old-style vinyl record
involved cutting grooves in a stamping die with a precision lathe. More
mundanely, the dominant technology for mass duplication of paper documents
in pre-photocopying days involved cutting a stencil , punching away portions
of the wax overlay on a silk screen. More directly, paper tape with holes
punched in it was an important early storage medium. See also burn a CD.

