Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

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}]