The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):

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.


The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

cut a tape

   To write a software or document distribution on magnetic tape
   for shipment.  Has nothing to do with physically cutting the
   medium!  "Cutting a disk" has also 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.

   [Jargon File]