{"id":293,"date":"2025-11-06T07:38:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T07:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/?p=293"},"modified":"2025-12-03T17:21:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T17:21:25","slug":"success-of-the-cassette-the-walkman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/?p=293","title":{"rendered":"Success of the Cassette: The Walkman"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The cassette was revolutionary in audio and recording technology due to its compact size and mobility capabilities. Compared to the radio, cassettes gave music listeners more control over the music they listened to, and made it more practical to listen to your favorite album or artist on the go. The mobility of the cassette is largely what made it so successful, which was only elevated by the invention of the Sony Walkman in 1979.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Sony Walkman, “TPS-L2” model<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Walkman is just about the size of a compact cassette and is accompanied by a pair of headphones for users to listen to their music individually, on the go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Walkman was created by Sony chairmen Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita who saw an open market for portable music listening devices due to the fact that before 1979 the main ways of listening to cassettes were home or car stereo systems.2<\/a><\/sup> The original version of the Walkman (\u2018TPS-L2\u2019) set itself apart from the conventional tape recorder because it used stereo circuits and light weight headphones, which offered music listeners the opportunity to create a unique, individual music-listening experience.3<\/a><\/sup> It was a huge success all across the globe, selling 186 million units of the cassette version from its launch in July 1979 to 1998.4<\/a><\/sup> The Sony Walkman made cassettes that much more successful and solidified them as an iconic piece of music technology in the twentieth century.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

  1. David Pierce. \u201cSony\u2019s Walkman Turns 35: The Gadget That Started It All.\u201d The Verge<\/em>. July 1, 2014. https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2014\/7\/1\/5861062\/sony-walkman-at-35<\/a>. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Sony Corporation. \u201cSony Celebrates Walkman\u00ae 20th Anniversary.\u201d Sony Group Portal<\/em>, July 1, 1999. https:\/\/www.sony.com\/en\/SonyInfo\/News\/Press\/199907\/99-059\/. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  3. Sony Corporation. \u201cSony Celebrates Walkman\u00ae 20th Anniversary.\u201d\u00a0 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  4. Sony Corporation. \u201cSony Celebrates Walkman\u00ae 20th Anniversary.\u201d\u00a0 \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The cassette was revolutionary in audio and recording technology due to its compact size and mobility capabilities. Compared to the radio, cassettes gave music listeners more control over the music they listened to, and made it more practical to listen to your favorite album or artist on the go. The mobility of the cassette is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"David Pierce. \u201cSony\u2019s Walkman Turns 35: The Gadget That Started It All.\u201d The Verge<\/em>. July 1, 2014. https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2014\/7\/1\/5861062\/sony-walkman-at-35<\/a>.\",\"id\":\"50d1145b-84b1-463c-abdb-cd7b867a3062\"},{\"content\":\"Sony Corporation. \u201cSony Celebrates Walkman\u00ae 20th Anniversary.\u201d Sony Group Portal<\/em>, July 1, 1999. https:\/\/www.sony.com\/en\/SonyInfo\/News\/Press\/199907\/99-059\/.\",\"id\":\"83fca881-8f75-49c6-9757-6acfc4cb7653\"},{\"content\":\"Sony Corporation. \u201cSony Celebrates Walkman\u00ae 20th Anniversary.\u201d\u00a0\",\"id\":\"cde4168a-93d2-425a-bf87-18a48b5ac419\"},{\"content\":\"Sony Corporation. \u201cSony Celebrates Walkman\u00ae 20th Anniversary.\u201d\u00a0\",\"id\":\"f8ff23cc-c61f-4155-8a8e-d22ad4312af8\"}]"},"categories":[8],"tags":[19,21],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact","tag-impact","tag-walkman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426,"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/historyoftech.mcclurken.org\/cassettes\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}