🎧 Sony Walkman: The Analog Icon That Led to a Digital Revolution | 49

Summary

The Best Idea Yet – Episode 49

Sony Walkman: The Analog Icon That Led to a Digital Revolution
Hosts: Nick Martell & Jack Crivici-Kramer
Date: September 16, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode unpacks the fascinating origin story and enduring legacy of the Sony Walkman—the revolutionary invention that turned personal, portable music into a global phenomenon. Nick and Jack trace its roots from postwar Japan to the global stage, spotlighting the visionaries who invented both the device and a new way to experience music. Along the way, they explore how the Walkman laid the groundwork for today’s digital music culture and even influenced Apple’s iPod. The episode delivers entrepreneurial insights, key business takeaways, and a fun, nostalgic journey through music tech history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mixtapes and the Magic of Personal Playlists

Opening Segment: 00:10–01:01

• Jack and Nick reminisce about making mixtapes and CDs for friends and long-distance partners, setting the stage for why the Walkman was so transformative.
• Quote:
  “Before the Walkman, the only people you saw wearing headphones were air traffic controllers and the sound people on film sets.”
  – Jack (01:53)

2. Postwar Roots: Two Engineers in Rebuilding Japan

Origins of Sony: 05:41–08:45

• Story of Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, two engineers with a vision to use technology for social good, not profit alone.
• They formed the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company, later Sony, using scavenged materials and focusing on repairing radios in postwar Tokyo.
• Quote:
  “They’re building a company with a purpose.”
  – Nick (08:45)

3. Innovation from Scarcity: The First Steps

First Products and Market Need: 08:45–10:31

• Early products were made from whatever materials they could find, from rice cookers to repairing radios (a demand caused by government sabotage during WWII).
• Their reputation grew, culminating in a key contract with NHK to rebuild Japan’s broadcast infrastructure.

4. From Tape Recorders to Portable Music

Magnetic Tape Revolution: 11:34–14:49

• Discovery of American magnetic tape technology; Ibuka and Morita built Japan’s first tape recorders, selling to schools, journalists, and radio stations.
• First “portable” tape recorder weighed 28 pounds—“about the size of our labradoodle.” – Nick (13:47)

5. Sony Goes Global & the Cassette Tape Leap

Expansion and New Formats: 15:13–19:58

• After a 1952 earthquake, they realized the importance of diversifying and going international.
• Rebrand to “Sony,” a name designed for global appeal, symbolizing sound and approachability (from “sonus” and “sonny boy”).
• Revolutionized music consumption by adopting Philips’s cassette tape format—sealed, compact, and recordable.

6. Music to the Moon

Apollo 11 & The Proto-Walkman: 20:38–22:56

• The Apollo 11 astronauts took a Sony TC-50 tape recorder to the moon, with Michael Collins listening to a Barbra Streisand mixtape while orbiting alone.

7. The Birth of the Walkman: Innovation by Subtraction

Product Genesis: 22:56–26:29

• Ibuka challenged engineers to create a super-portable cassette player for his own airplane trips, which led to removing bulk (no recording, no speaker) and focusing on portability and sound quality.
• Key insight: Innovation came not from adding features, but from stripping them away—a rare business strategy.

8. The Headphone Revolution

Design Breakthrough: 24:42–25:14

• The world’s first lightweight, portable headphones—orange foam pads now instantly evoke the Walkman image.

9. Go-to-Market Struggles & Breakout Success

Early Reception: 26:58–29:50

• Initial sales were slow. The concept was so new, retailers didn’t know what it was.
• Success arrived via guerrilla marketing—let people try it and experience personal music on-the-go. A sensation was born.
• Quote:
  “The Walkman is simply too different at first, and nobody knows what to make of it. But Sony is not giving up, because they're about to make a move that changes everything.”
  – Jack (27:23)

10. Cultural Phenomenon & the Mixtape Era

29:50–32:32

• The Walkman redefined the soundtrack of everyday life, enabling people to curate their own experience on the go.
• Mixtapes exploded in popularity—“The cassette, it becomes a canvas.” – Nick (31:24)
• Record labels panicked, warning that “home taping is killing music,” but the public loved their newfound control.

11. From Cassette to Disc—and the Missed Digital Moment

Sony’s Innovations and Stumbles: 34:55–39:52

• Sony launched the Discman and helped CDs overtake both vinyl and cassette.

• Despite their head start and owning music catalogs, Sony lost the digital revolution to Apple because they forced proprietary formats—making it difficult for consumers to use their MP3 players.

• Apple’s iPod was inspired by Sony, but surpassed them by focusing on user experience rather than restricting piracy.

• Quote:
  “The iPod did to the Walkman what the Walkman did to vinyl. Though you could argue, and we do, that it was the Walkman that made the iPod possible.”
  – Nick (41:19)

12. Sony’s Legacy: A Pivot to Music & Gaming

Resilience and Enduring Influence: 39:52–41:42

• Even though Sony lost out to Apple in hardware, it succeeded as the world’s leading music publisher—owning major artists and thriving in the streaming age.
• They also disrupted video gaming with the PlayStation by using disc formats pioneered for music.

13. Business Takeaways: Simplicity & Intuition

Lessons for Innovators: 41:58–43:38

• Simplicity: The Walkman shows that innovation is often about focus and doing one thing exceptionally well (“Subtraction can be a superpower.”—Nick, 41:58).
• Intuition over Focus Groups: Sony created the Walkman from founder Ibuka’s personal desire, not consumer research.
  • Quote:
    “This is a product you try.” — Ibuka (shared by Jack, 43:23)
    “The Walkman is a gut product, not a graph product.” – Jack (43:38)

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Memorable Quotes

• “You really feel the music with the Sony Walkman.”
  – Nick (01:18)

• “Across continents and across time zones…people are tuning in and vibing out…with the same orange foamed headphones pressed to their ears.”
  – Jack (28:02)

• “Strangers start passing the Walkman around, marveling at the sound quality, the portability, and the idea that music could be private.”
  – Nick (29:13)

• “Sometimes innovation isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing less.”
  – Nick (42:41)

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Notable Moments & Fascinating Facts

• The Walkman had two headphone jacks so you could listen with a friend, plus a “Hotline” button to pause music and talk without removing headphones. (44:18)
• Over 300 versions of the Walkman were released, including a limited-edition silver-plated Tiffany & Co. Walkman for its 10th anniversary. (43:56)

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:10–01:01 – Personal mixtape memories & the rise of portable music
• 05:41–08:45 – Ibuka & Morita’s partnership and Sony’s founding vision
• 11:34–14:49 – Breakthrough with magnetic tape recorders
• 15:13–19:58 – Going global and the rise of cassettes
• 20:38–22:56 – Sony’s tape recorder goes to the moon
• 22:56–26:29 – The Walkman’s invention: simplicity by subtraction
• 26:58–29:50 – Marketing the Walkman & its viral emergence
• 29:50–32:32 – How mixtapes shaped music culture
• 34:55–39:52 – Sony’s CD and digital missteps in the MP3 era
• 41:58–43:38 – Top business lessons: subtraction and intuition
• 43:48–44:48 – Hero facts: headphone jacks, hotline, Tiffany Walkman

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Overall Tone

Upbeat, irreverent, and conversational—Nick and Jack keep things light and playful while packing the episode with insights, stats, and quotable moments. They balance historical storytelling with entrepreneurial lessons and relatable nostalgia, making the Walkman’s history feel fresh and relevant for today’s listeners.

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Summary Takeaways

• The Walkman wasn’t just a gadget—it was a cultural revolution, enabling personal soundtracks on the move.
• Innovation can mean doing less, not more; focusing on a core function can create new markets.
• Intuition and founder vision sometimes trump data—revolutionary products may come from personal need.
• Even industry pioneers can be disrupted; failing to adapt user-friendly approaches lost Sony the MP3 race to Apple.
• Sony’s greatest legacy endures not just in hardware, but in shaping how—and where—we experience music, and in the convergence of technology with culture.

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Transcript

[Nick Martell]

Wondery subscribers can listen to the best idea yet, early and ad free right now.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Join Wondery in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

[Nick Martell]

Wondery. All right, Jack, can you pull out the shoebox with all the cassette mixtapes in there?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Let me rewind you to 2004. My pastime as a child was making my own mixtapes with my buddies Dave and Johnny. You need a giant boombox, the one with two cassette players. You play the cassette that your buddy owns on one player and then you copy that song onto the other player.

[Nick Martell]

Oh, you were burning, baby. When Molly and I were long distance, I made her mixtapes. Oh no. But I made her a different CD for different parts of the drive. What? I had an i95 CD for that highway, which was like a little bit more urban upbeat kind of a thing. And then like an i93 CD which is like a little more rural. You know what I mean?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Boyfriend of the year award.

[Nick Martell]

Thank you, man.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But yetis, despite Nick showing all of us up with the romance of that gesture, the hero product of today's show is the incredible invention that paved the way for mixtapes and personal soundtracks. The ancestor of the ipod, it's the Sony Walkman.

[Nick Martell]

You really feel the music with the Sony Walkman.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The Sony Walkman is a tiny stereo cassette player with truly incredible sound. The first truly portable music player that let you take your tunes anywhere. Before digital music, the Internet or the Spice Girls, we're talking analog cassettes here.

[Nick Martell]

The Sony Walkman may sound retro now, but when IT launched in 1979, this portable music player was a life liberating breakthrough. And it actually built the very foundation for the consumer tech products we all use today.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Before the Walkman, the only people you saw wearing headphones were were air traffic controllers and the sound people on film sets.

[Nick Martell]

And back then, Jack, you could only listen to music in a fixed location. Once you left your house or your car, you left the Beach Boys back at home.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Unless of course, you carried around a 35 pound boombox with two cassette players.

[Nick Martell]

And annoyed everybody on the subway. Don't forget the D batteries.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But when Japanese electronics giant Sony launched the Walkman, all of that changed. Suddenly you could jog while jamming out to your music, commute while vibing to your tunes, roller skate to your own personal disco.

[Nick Martell]

The Walkman was a cultural touchstone for cool 80s kids. But it came from the minds of two electronics nerds who got their start repairing broken radios in war ravaged Japan. Together they built a nearly $150 billion electronics empire making everything from TVs to video game consoles to specialty medical gear.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Sony today is bigger than Nike, Starbucks, and Nintendo. It's the third biggest entertainment business on.

[Nick Martell]

Planet Earth, and the Walkman was just the start, but was too revolutionary for its own good.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This trip is going to take us to some unexpected places, like flying to the moon with Barbra Streisand. And we'll find out why Steve Jobs broke his Walkman into pieces in a good way. We'll learn how subtraction can be a.

[Nick Martell]

Superpower, and why intuition beats information on launch day.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

All right, Nick, it's time to take the tape out, flip it over and push play.

[Nick Martell]

Here's why the Sony Walkman is the best idea yet from Wondery and T Boy, I'm Nick Martell.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And I'm Jack Crevici Kramer.

[Nick Martell]

And this is the best idea yet. The untold origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Takers who made them go viral.

[Nick Cannon]

I got that feeling again Something familiar but new.

[Nick Martell]

We got it coming to you.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

I got that feeling again they changed.

[Nick Cannon]

The game in one move. It's how they broke all the rooms.

[Tommy Alters]

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[Audible Narrator]

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[Jack Crevici Kramer]

A pair of American soldiers walk down a quiet street in downtown Tokyo. They're members of the U.S. forces still stationed in Japan after World War II. They're helping with security and the massive task of rebuilding. Most windows in the city are dark because in late 1945, electricity is spotty and it's expensive, so seeing a light on after dark is rare. Which is why the soldiers stop outside the Shirokia department store. They can see a light flickering up on the third floor. The soldiers exchange a look. Looters, maybe.

[Nick Martell]

They circle to the alley behind the store, and they wait. After a few minutes, a backdoor creaks open and two figures step out. The soldiers turn their flashlights on and the men freeze. They raise their hands in the air as the things they're carrying drop to the ground with a clank. But the stuff they ditch it isn't stolen goods, just a soldering iron and a battered metal toolbox.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

When the soldiers demand an explanation, one of the men slowly reaches into his jacket and pulls out a scuffed card with hand printed English. It says. Their names are Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita.

[Nick Martell]

They're engineers who have set up a small workshop above the department store, and they're so busy they often work pretty late. Looking at them, white shirts and neat ties under their coveralls, hair parted, glasses straight. The soldiers buy the story, and they let the two guys go on their way.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Ibuka and Morita met during the war, working on Japan's wartime Research Committee, a group tasked with developing new tech for the military. Ibuka is 12 years older than Morita and more reserved. He's a lifelong tinkerer with an almost magical touch when it comes to wires and circuits. If your microwave starts making weird clanging sounds, Ibuka is your guy.

[Nick Martell]

Well, Morita is the more outgoing personality and the business brains of the duo. If Ibuka is fixing your microwave, Morita is asking you why you bought that cheap brand in the first place. He actually grew up dreaming of taking over his family's sake company. But despite his appreciation for fine rice wine, he just couldn't resist the pull of technology. And after graduating in 1944 with a major in physics, he joined Japan's Navy Air Technical Arsenal.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Together, Ibuka and Morita helped the military build new ways to detect submarines. Not exactly their dream jobs, because both men would rather help people, not hunt them. But they bond over a shared belief that technology should be used to make a better life for everyone.

[Nick Martell]

So Jack. When the war ends, they don't want to find an easy job sitting in a lab for a secure paycheck. These two are dreaming of building a company. One that can stand for innovation, optimism, and to help Japan rebuild itself.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

So they decide to start a business, and they call it, in English, the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Company.

[Nick Martell]

A little clunky, Jack, but we can roll with it.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

One night, spitballing on how they can help their war torn nation rise from its literal ashes, they start scribbling their vision for the company on a piece of paper.

[Nick Martell]

This is a set of founding principles. Ibuka writes down useful and innovative technology, while Morita. He wants to champion creativity over hierarchy. And as the sun sets behind Mount Fuji, Ibuka and Morita fire up their gas lamps and keep on working through the night. One of them suggests placing the needs of society above quick profits. In other words, they're building a company with a purpose.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But in post war Japan, building a company, much less one with purpose, isn't easy. Because of material shortages, they have to make screwdrivers from old motorcycle springs. They use telephone cable as electrical wire. One of their early products is a rice cooker made from old wooden tubs. Then they hit on an idea that starts winning them regular business. Radio repair.

[Nick Martell]

During the war, Japanese authorities didn't want citizens tuning into Allied broadcasts, so military police would actually go house to house cutting the wires in people's radio. It was a form of state sponsored sabotage to cut off Japanese citizens from getting outside information.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But now with the war over and American forces in charge, people are desperate to get their radios working again. Demand is so high, Ibuka and Morita can barely keep up with it. Then one morning, a game changing request comes in from nhk, Japan's national broadcaster. They want Ibuka and Morita to help convert old military radio gear into civilian relay stations.

[Nick Martell]

This is a huge job, vital to Japan's post war recovery.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Exactly the kind of work Ibuka and Morita envisioned in that late night manifesto.

[Nick Martell]

So Morita turns to Ibuka and says, we're going to need a bigger office, man.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And then Ibuka turns to Morita and says, we're going to need more people, man.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah, it's time to scale up.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And that contract with Japan's top broadcaster sets them up for a chance encounter that will change the company and change the way the world listens to music forever. Ibuka and Morita have swapped their oily coveralls for crumpled suits because they're not getting ready for a repair job today. They're here for a business meeting with their biggest customer. This is NHK Radio headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. Tall, narrow windows are set into vertical columns. And sitting on top of the flat roof is a towering radio antenna.

[Nick Martell]

This building, it ain't just home to Japan's national broadcaster, is it, man?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

It also happens to be the HQ for the U.S. armed Forces in Japan.

[Nick Martell]

That's right. Right now, 1949, there are hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops stationed across the country, overseeing Japan's reconstruction.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Ibuka and Morita have become friendly with some of the Americans working at the Civil Information and Education section. And today, as they pass the door to the section's office, one of the Americans calls them in to show off a new piece of equipment.

[Nick Martell]

And what they're looking at is a big box with two spinning spools. And between the reels runs a thin strip of black tape.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

One of the Americans leans over a microphone attached to this contraption and speaks into it.

[Nick Martell]

Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing, 1, 2,3.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And then they spool back. The tape hit play, and the voice comes back at them out of the speaker.

[Nick Martell]

Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing, 1, 2,3.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Like magic or something.

[Nick Martell]

Ibuka and Marina, they probably got in their hands on a thousand different radios at this point.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But they've never seen anything like this before.

[Nick Martell]

Until now. Recording sound has been an extremely time consuming and expensive process. You need a big, bulky style special equipment that uses a needle to physically carve sound waves into spinning wax discs. This new machine, on the other hand.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Wow.

[Nick Martell]

This is different. This can record and playback sounds in seconds.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The secret is in the tape. That plastic ribbon is coated in a magnetic material. This machine takes the signal from the microphone and uses magnets to encode the sound wave onto the tape.

[Nick Martell]

Eddie Bucha is so blown away, he. He makes a pretty bold ask. Um, can I borrow that machine? A few days later, American officers actually deliver it to his office. The team gathers around and starts experimenting by recording their own voices, playing them back, doing it again, and over and over and over, marveling at these recording playback results.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

None of them have seen this before, but they're all taking the same thing.

[Nick Martell]

We gotta make one of our own.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

After a full year of experimenting, Ibuka, Marita and their team finally have a working prototype. They hit record and they say these words, which means, today we have fine weather.

[Nick Martell]

By the way, that is actually what you say to test a microphone in Japan, even if it's a howling gale outside. Today we have fine weather.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This thing works. And within a few months, they're making tape Recorders for schools, government offices and radio stations. And in 1951 they released their first consumer model, the H type, weighing in at a light £28.

[Nick Martell]

Now at this time that's considered portable, which I mean 28 pounds is like the size of our labradoodle. So they give this thing a shoulder strap and say good luck. But after a few hours of lugging it around, you have herniated a couple discs in your back.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This thing looks like an inside out stereo. The tape spools are large and exposed on the outside, so they're very easy to get knocked off or tangled.

[Nick Martell]

Now this thing's not sophisticated enough to give you a high fidelity playback of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but it is perfect for speech. This is the OG version of the voice memo app on your phone.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

With this new tape recorder, radio stations can pre record segments, Professors can tape their history lectures, journalists can record their.

[Nick Martell]

Interviews, and every 8 year old worldwide can finally record that fart sound. Now, tape recorders are already being used this way in the United States, but those American made machines, they're way too expensive for Japanese buyers. So Ibuka and Morita's company has the whole market all to themselves.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But then in 1952, something shakes Ibuka and Morita to their core, literally. An earthquake hits Japan's snow capped northern island of Hokkaido. Tokyo is undamaged. But it makes Ibuka and Morita realize just how vulnerable they are.

[Nick Martell]

What if Tokyo had been hit by the earthquake? All their manufacturing, a lot of their customers, they're all based in that one city.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The quake is a major wakeup call. Concentrating all their operations in one city, in one country and in one product is a dangerous bet. If they want to build a lasting company that can fulfill the dreams of their manifesto, they need a change. So they start thinking about going international and building not just tape players, but everything. Like every electronic thing, if you can.

[Nick Martell]

Plug it in, they want to build it. And Marita knows that they need a new name. If they're going to go global, they're going to need something that's easy to say in any language. Something short, snappy, borderless. What about Sony?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Sony? It comes from the Latin sonus, meaning.

[Nick Martell]

Sound, a nod to their roots in audio technology.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But this name isn't just a highbrow flex because it also reminds them of the term sonny boy. A nickname they'd hear American GIs calling kids on the streets of Tokyo. So for Morita, it's casual, friendly and human. Exactly the kind of brand they want to build. And with a name like Sony, quick, catchy, global, they're ready to take their dreams to build a tech utopia overseas.

[Nick Martell]

Ibuka. Yeah, he always liked the challenge.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

So, Jack, what do you say we.

[Nick Martell]

Start with the biggest, boldest market of them all?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

America.

[Nick Martell]

Why are there ridges on Reese's peanut butter cups? Probably so they never slip from her hands. Could you imagine I'd lose it? Luckily, Reese has thought about that. Wonder what else they think about? Probably chocolate and peanut butter.

[Nick Cannon]

It's your man, Nick Cannon, and I'm here to bring you my new podcast, Nick Cannon at Night. I've heard y' all been needing some advice in the love department. So who better to help than yours truly? Nah, I'm serious. Every week I'm bringing out some of my celebrity friends and the best experts in the business to answer your most intimate relationship questions. Having problems with your man? We got you catching feelings for your sneaky link. Let's make sure it's the real deal first. Ready to bring toys into the bedroom? Let's talk about it. Consider this a non judgment zone to ask your questions when it comes to sex and modern dating and in relationships, friendships, situationships and everything in between. It's gonna be sexy, freaky, messy. And you know what? You'll just have to watch the show. So don't be shy, join the conversation and head over to YouTube to watch Nick Cannon at night. Or subscribe on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcast. Wanna watch episodes early and ad free? Join Wondery plus.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

If you're gonna throw a party, then the corner of Fifth Avenue and 47th street in Midtown Manhattan is a pretty darn good spot. It's 1962, and for the first time in America since the start of World War II, a Japanese flag flutters in the breeze. Inside Sony's new showroom. There are portable radios, reel to reel tape players, and the company's latest product, a portable black and white TV that comes in its own padded carrying case.

[Nick Martell]

In the last decade, Sony's been pumping out innovative products at a Tommy Edison pace. And one of their most popular is a range of battery powered portable radios. And they've just come out with a portable television, which these New Yorkers are flocking to see in the new showroom.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

It's 1962 and Sony is already crushing it. Revenues hit over $3 million that year, or $31 million in today's money. Meanwhile, Morita has been spending more time abroad trying to build Sony into an international brand.

[Nick Martell]

And on returning from one of These trips, He rushes into Ibuka's office with a box tucked under his arm. It's a prototype for a new tape machine from a Dutch company called Philips. And it looks different.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

It's not the player itself that's got Morita excited. It's the way it reads tape. It doesn't use those two big exposed reels of tape. Instead, the reels are tiny, only a few inches across. And this part's key, they're sealed within a plastic shell. So it's neat and compact. You just pop it into the machine and press play. What our two guys are staring at right here is the cassette tape.

[Nick Martell]

The cassette tape. And, Jack, it's not just the form, it's the function. Because unlike vinyl, which you can only play, these cassettes can also be used to record. You can tape your own voice or music from the radio and records, or even record your very own snoring. So you can leave it playing while you sneak out of the house after bedtime.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

So the Sony duo call up Philips, and they strike a deal. Sony gets to adopt this cassette format, and Philips agrees to waive royalties. Now they want to move fast to dominate the new market for cassette players.

[Nick Martell]

The new team, Sony and Philips, are working together to make better cassette tapes and players. They increase the audio range so that music on tape goes from sounding thin and reedy like this to full of depth and range like this.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This teamworked boost in quality and convenience means by the mid-1960s, the cassette tape takes off as a music format. But what they don't realize, this little plastic rectangle is about to change not just how we listen to music, but where we listen to it. You hear that, Nick?

[Nick Martell]

Yeah. No mistaking those pipes, Jack. That's Barbra Streisand.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But we're not on Broadway. In fact, we're about as far from Broadway as any human being has ever.

[Nick Martell]

Been off off Broadway.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Add a few thousand more offs, my friend, okay? Because it's July 20, 1969, and we're inside the Apollo 11 command module, 250,000 miles from Earth with the loneliest man in the universe, Michael Collins.

[Nick Martell]

His shipmates Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin strap into their lunar module, which is about to bring man to the moon for the first time ever. But Collins stays behind in orbit to look after the Columbia command module.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

As Collins looks out the window, he watches Earth shrink, then vanish behind the moon. Radio contact with mission control in Houston cuts out. For the next 48 minutes, it's just him. No voices, no lights, no signal. But he does have Babs thanks to a cassette spinning in a small machine about the size of a paperback book. This machine is the Sony TC50.

[Nick Martell]

It basically looks like a proto Walkman. It's a whole decade before the Walkman actually came out, but I feel like we're staring at it right now. As America lands on the moon, NASA.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Issued this Sony built compact tape recorder to the crew so they could dictate mission notes while they're up in space. But Nick, it has a built in speaker. So the crew spotted an opportunity to take a slice of audio heaven from Earth up into orbit. They made a mixtape.

[Nick Martell]

In addition to Babs, they've got tunes from Glen Campbell, Some blood, sweat and tears, even some spacey sounding Jaz.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Even though the astronauts are listening to tunes on this thing way out in the final frontier, no one sees this as anything more than a fun one off stunt for the Apollo mission. The idea of portable music just isn't a concept that appears on anybody's radar until almost 10 years later on a much less exciting flight. As Sony is taking off internationally, its co founder Masaru Ibuka finds himself taking more and more long international flights. There's that tech conference in Zurich, the new office opening in London.

[Nick Martell]

Oh, and Jack, don't forget about the team building event down in Rio.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

To pass the time on these long trips, he lugs around Sony's latest innovation, a high end portable cassette player. It's specifically designed for music and opera loving. Ibuka just wants to settle back in business class, plug in his headphones and zone out to some Puccini on the plane.

[Nick Martell]

Sounds lovely. It's now 1978 and the idea of a portable music player is very different to ours today. You see this thing, it is not pocket portable. At three and a half pounds, it's about the size and the weight of an Encyclopedia Britannica.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

It's not 28 pounds like that original tape recorder, but three and a half pounds is no ipod. So Ibuka calls up his engineers and issues them a challenge. Make me a cassette player that is ultra portable. I want something that fits in my one hand that I can slip into my briefcase. That's simple to use, elegant even, and it's built to do just one thing, play music on the go.

[Nick Martell]

Well, that's when they dust off the design of that tape recorder, the one that the Apollo astronauts had taken to the moon. They removed the speaker and the recording function and they stripped down the device all the way to focus on one thing and one thing only play high quality Music in the smallest package possible.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This might be the first product we've covered that's actually just a scaled back version of something that already exists. Usually, innovation means adding more. More features, more buttons, more bells and whistles.

[Nick Martell]

But here, Jack the genius is in the subtraction. This new machine is minimalist in its approach. All you do is slot in your Eagle's greatest hits tape, hit play, and then, boom. You're immediately taking it easy.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But remember how we said they removed the speaker for this new device? How are you going to hear the thing? Looks like there's one vital part left to add.

[Nick Martell]

The headphones.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

At this time, the late 1970s, the headphones that exist in the world are enormous. They actually look like Princess Leia's hairdo.

[Nick Martell]

Now, no one, we mean no one walks around outside with headphones on. Because until the Walkman, headphones were designed to be worn sitting still in a professional music studio like Simon and Garfunkel, they weren't meant to be used on the go.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

So the Sony engineers come up with a lightweight design, a headband with two orange foam pads that sit on each ear. And that color, orange, is important.

[Nick Martell]

Now, with the player and the headphones combined, this new project starts to come together as a little machine no bigger than a paperback book, and it lets you take your music anywhere.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The prototype is ready by February 1979. And Ibuka, he's into it. So is Morita. So they set up an intense deadline, launch this new creation by June, so it's ready by the time school lets out.

[Nick Martell]

And Jack, they also set the price. And like we like to say, the price is a Signal. So it's $150, or about $660 in today's money. Now, at first, that does sound like a lot yetis until you consider this. The original ipod. It cost you $399 when it launched in 2001, which is over 700 bucks today. Jack and I like to call this the early adopter tax, because when you get version one of any new technology, it's going to be very pricey.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Early adopters are the tech fanatics who are so eager to try the newest, greatest thing, they've got a higher willingness to pay.

[Nick Martell]

And the company's making that innovative tech they need every dollar they can get before economies of scale kick in.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And then there's the little question of what to call it internally. Someone floated Walkman as a nod to their earlier portable recorder, the Pressman. But not everyone is sold on the Walkman.

[Nick Martell]

So then a Bunch of other names get tossed around, like the Soundabout, the Stowaway, the Freestyle, even the Sony Disco Jogger. Jack, I was thinking Tape Daddy may work, but some of Sony's executives in the US and Europe, they just beg them to change it. They think that Walkman, it sounds like mangled English, it's not going to work.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But Morita liked that Walkman felt unique in some ways, strategically awkward. The oddness made the name stick in people's heads. Once he heard it, he wouldn't budge.

[Nick Martell]

Walkman is clear enough to be understandable, but curious enough to be memorable.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But when the Walkman first hits stores in Japan, it barely makes a sound. In the first month, it only sells around 3,000 units.

[Nick Martell]

The problem with that first Walkman isn't the name, but it's the concept. It's just too new. Retailers don't even know what shelf to put it on. Is this a radio? A recorder? A weird toy?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The Walkman is simply too different at first, and nobody knows what to make of it. But Sony is not giving up, because they're about to make a move that changes everything. A jogger in Central park pounds the pavement to the beat of Blondie in his ears. Half a world away, a businessman on a Tokyo Commander commuter train sways in his suit as he zones out to Vivaldi. Over in Venice beach, an aerobics Instructor counts down 3, 2, 1, and then tells everyone in her class to hit play as she's leading a synchronized workout to La Freak by Chic.

[Nick Martell]

Across continents and across time zones on bikes, subways, treadmills and skateboards, people are tuning in and vibing out. A factory worker in Liverpool, a student in Seoul, a flight attendant on a layover in Paris, all with the same orange foamed headphones pressed to their ears and all carrying a tiny blue and silver machine clipped to their belt or stashed in their backpack.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This is the Sony Walkman. You slide in the cassette, push play, the tape rolls, and suddenly the noise of the world fades. You're no longer on a crowded bus or stuffy classroom. You're living in your own movie, and you get to pick the soundtrack.

[Nick Martell]

Sony's gamble has paid off. That strange little box Ibuka wanted so he could listen to the Marriage of Figaro. At 30,000ft, it has become global. And like the Rubik's Cubes, MTV and Jane Fonda workout videos, this thing is helping define a decade.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

After that disappointing initial launch in Japan, Sony hits the the streets to do some in person demos. Because their working theory Isn't that the product is bad. It's just so revolutionary. People won't know how much they want it until they try it.

[Nick Martell]

Strangers start passing the Walkman around, marveling at the sound quality, the portability, and the idea that music could be private. Oh, and the orange headphones. Yeah, that snags even more attention. Literally catching your eye. It says Sony without saying Sony.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The first 30,000 units sell out in Japan by the end of the summer 1979. Then it's time to go global.

[Nick Martell]

The Walkman launches in the US in June of 1980, and sales explode. We're talking 50,000 units in just two months. Sony's revenues jumped 41% in a year. Those are Beanie baby numbers right there.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Celebs get on board, and not just the techie ones. Artist Andy Warhol marvels at the Walkman. Singer Donna Summers gets one, and Paul Simon, too. And then a meeting that will change how we listen to music forever.

[Nick Martell]

When Steve Jobs pays a visit to Sony headquarters over in Tokyo, Morita personally hands him a Walkman. Steve takes it home. And get this, he takes it apart. Steve Jobs is so shocked by the unprecedented power in this tiny box, he just has to know how it works.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Steve also blitzes Morita with a bunch of questions. When Morita tells Steve that he personally oversees every aspect of design, Steve realizes that great products aren't just about engineering. They're about obsession. Someone grinding over every detail, from the circuit board to the case design to the feel of the buttons.

[Nick Martell]

That philosophy, that's going to become one of the guiding principles at Apple. But ironically, it's going to come back to bite Sony.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But that's decades away, Nick. Right now, it's the early 80s, and the Walkman has more swagger than Keith Richards at Wembley. It's so popular, it even changes the format people use to listen to music. In 1978, tapes had an 11% market share compared to vinyl's 66%. But just six years later, by 1984, cassettes outsell vinyl for the first time ever. The format that was once seemed like a niche oddity is now the dominant way people consume music.

[Nick Martell]

And Jack, what's driving the change over to cassettes?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Mixtapes.

[Nick Martell]

Yeah. Cassette tapes are not just canvases for your music. They're listenable on the go. Thanks to the Walkman. Vinyls aren't. People make mixtapes for everything from party tapes and road trip soundtracks to breakup tapes and mixes to woo your crush. The cassette, it becomes a canvas. You know what John Cusack explained? It Best in the movie high fidelity. Now, the making of a good compilation.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Tape is a very subtle art.

[Nick Martell]

Many do's and don'ts.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

You gotta kick it off with a.

[Nick Martell]

Killer to grab attention. Then you gotta take it up a notch. Then you gotta cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Mixtapes are so disruptive, the record industry starts panicking. You've got record labels slapping stickers on albums that say things like home taping is killing music. But consumers don't care. They've got the power now, thanks to the Walkman and these tape players.

[Nick Martell]

I mean, Jack, is this reminding you.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Of the early 2000s when record companies were losing it over MP3 downloads with Napster, the record labels adapt eventually, but not before fighting a losing battle against a future that's already here.

[Nick Martell]

Add it all up and Sony helped create a new format, a new way of listening, and a new way of sharing music, all with one product. The Walkman. They are at the top of their game. Surely, Jack, surely nothing can go wrong, right?

[Charlie Brent Coast Cuff]

On Boxing Day, 2018, 20 year old Joy Morgan was last seen at her church, Israel United in Christ, or iuic. I just went on my Snapchat and I just see her face plastered everywhere. This is the Missing sister, the true story of a woman betrayed by those she trusted most.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

IUIC is my family and like the best family that I've ever had.

[Charlie Brent Coast Cuff]

But IUIC isn't like most churches.

[Nick Martell]

This is a devilish cult. You know when you get that feeling where you just, I don't want to be here. I want to get out. It's like that feeling of like, I want to go hang out.

[Charlie Brent Coast Cuff]

I'm Charlie Brent Coast Cuff. And after years of investigating Joy's case, I need to know what really happened to Joy. Binge all episodes of the Missing Sister exclusively and ad free right now on Wondery. Start your free trial of Wondery on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or in the Wondery app.

[Denise Chan]

Hi, I'm Denise Chan, host of Scam Factory. You might remember hearing about our investigative series that exposed what's really happening behind those suspicious texts you get inside heavily guarded compounds across Asia. Thousands are trapped and forced to scam others or risk torture. One of our most powerful stories was Jelas, a young woman who thought she'd found her dream job only to end up imprisoned in a scam compound. Her escape story caught the attention of criminal's Phoebe Judge. And I'm honored to share more details of Jella's journey with their audience. But Jella's story is just one piece of this investigation. In Scam Factory, we reveal how a billion dollar criminal empire turns job seekers into prisoners and how the only way out is to scam your way out. Ready to uncover the full story? Binge all episodes of Scam Factory. Now. Listen to Scam Factory on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

By 1984, the Walkman has gone platinum. In just a year and a half, 10 million units have sold. It is a certified smash hit. Sony's sales jumped by 14% that year, mostly due to the walk.

[Nick Martell]

But Jack, they're not done yet. In fact, Sony has got a brand new format on deck. It's shiny, it's disc shaped, and ho ho, it is coming for your record collection.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Sony has teamed up again with Philips, this time to develop their new compact disc format, or CD. CDs are smaller, they're more durable, and because they're digital, they can hold more music with crystal clear sound.

[Nick Martell]

CDs launch in 1982, and Sony's own portable CD player, the Discman, follows in 1984. By 1988, CD sales Eclipse Vinyl. And in 1991, they overtake cassettes. Sony, they are riding the digital wave they helped create.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Sony has helped create not one, but two new music formats and not one new way of listening to music on a move. Two with the Walkman and the Discman. So Sony has created new products and new habits.

[Nick Martell]

And Sony, they double down on these discs. They're simply a superior technology. In fact, Sony helps launch other disc formats too, like DVDs for movies and mini discs for music.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

They even buy a record label. In 1987, Sony shells out $2 billion for CBS Records. At the time the world's biggest and most successful record company. Now Sony owns the catalog to Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, Bob Dylan, and yes, even Bab Streisand herself.

[Nick Martell]

This deal means that Sony has control over the format, over the device, and.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Over the music itself. So heading into the digital age, it looks like Sony is in prime position.

[Nick Martell]

They're worth over $10 billion, and they're one of the world's biggest electronics companies.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

They've got the tech, the experience, and the music catalog. They basically invented modern portable music. How could they possibly fumble this? It's the early 2000s. You're hunched over the family's one desktop computer in that random room next to the dining room. You've got LimeWire or Napster running in the background, and you're one download away from giving your computer a virus just to see Snag Bittersweet Symphony.

[Nick Martell]

You're building playlists called Chill Out Vibes and breakup songs, volume three, even though you're only 13.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

But here's the thing. You're not burning those songs onto CDs anymore. You're syncing them straight to your digital music player. And it's not a Walkman made by Sony. It's an ipod made by Apple.

[Nick Martell]

This should have been Sony's moment. The company that put music in your pocket and headphones on your ears, by all accounts, should have owned the Digital Music Revolution, aka the MP3.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Sony's been making audio equipment since the 1940s, and they have 20 years experience making portable music players.

[Nick Martell]

They even own a record label. If ever a company was in a position to leap ahead and snap up this new market of online tunes, it's Sony.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

In fact, get this. Sony releases its first MP3 player in 1999, an entire two years before the Apple Ipod.

[Nick Martell]

What? You're kidding.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

That's right. Sony beat Apple to it, and they call it the Memory Stick Walkman. That's a tough one, but it's not the clunky name that cost them. They actually changed the name pretty quickly to Network Walkman, which, to be honest, isn't much better. Sony makes a critical error and forces users to convert their music into a proprietary Sony only file format called a track. All because they are afraid of piracy hurting their record label business. And surprise, no one wants to convert their tunes.

[Nick Martell]

That's friction right there, Jack. And friction. That's the great enemy of tech. It's simply too much to ask consumers to go through all the hoops like that.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Meanwhile, Apple is paying close attention. In 2001, Steve Jobs, the guy who took apart a Walkman just to see how it worked, launches the ipod.

[Nick Martell]

Steve was struck by how Sony's leadership personally obsessed over design and user experience. And you know what? He took that same ethos and applied it to the ipod, making it sleek, simple, delightful to use the same principles as Sony.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The result? A device that feels like the spiritual successor to the Walkman, but built for the digital age. The iPod plays MP3s, it syncs with itunes, and like the Walkman before it, everybody wants one.

[Nick Martell]

Mom, please.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Crucially, Nick, Apple didn't have a record label. So if pirating music went wild, that's not Apple's problem.

[Nick Martell]

No. And the ipod, it crushes it. While Apple made it as easy as possible to listen to MP3 music, Sony was too busy trying to stop people from stealing songs.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

This has got to be One of the biggest business misses we have ever covered. Facing the innovator's dilemma, Sony chose to defend their record label rather than go on the offense towards digital music.

[Nick Martell]

And within eight years of launching, Apple is selling over 200 million iPods.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Basically, the ipod did to the Walkman what the Walkman did to vinyl. Though you could argue, and we do, that it was the Walkman that made the ipod possible.

[Nick Martell]

But not all is lost. Because while Sony fumbles music, they quietly rewrite the rules of gaming. In 1994, Sony launches the PlayStation and quickly disrupts video gaming. Nintendo and Sega, they've dominated the space for a decade. But Sony's PlayStation, with the slick graphics and its CD based format that makes gaming feel cinematic and makes it go mainstream. Thanks to Sony, you're not blowing into that game cartridge anymore. And as downloading MP3s gave way to Spotify and the streaming era, Sony is already positioned to thrive.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Because while they stumbled with hardware, they'd been quietly building a music empire off that CBS record label purchase. And with an artist roster that boasts Beyonce, the Beatles, Kendrick Lamar and Michael Jackson, Sony pulls in more than 5 minutes billion a year from streaming rights alone.

[Nick Martell]

Sony is now the biggest music publisher.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

On earth, and the revenues their record label makes from streaming is a third of Spotify's total revenue. And that's just one division within all of Sony.

[Nick Martell]

Even if Sony lost the portable music player war, they still ended up winning by owning the music itself.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And if a Booka and Morita were still alive today, that would be music to their ears. Crisp, clear, portable music. Nick, what's your takeaway on this story of the Walkman?

[Nick Martell]

Subtraction can be a superpower. The Walkman didn't add more features, it took them away. No record button, no speaker. Just a sleek, focused machine that did one thing beautifully. Play music on the move. The tech had been around for a decade, and there was a definite unrealized demand for a portable music player. But it took subtraction from a bulky tape recording device in order to unlock it.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The original ipod did the same thing. One click wheel with one purpose. Even the original Google homepage stripped everything away but a single search box, which consumers clearly prefer to MSN and Yahoo's very busy sensory overload homepages.

[Nick Martell]

Jack, sometimes innovation isn't about doing more, it's about doing less. Just with more focus. Subtraction can be addition. But Jack, what about you? What's your takeaway?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Sometimes you need graphs, other times you need guts. Sometimes it's the information, other times it's the intuition, Nick. Sony invented the Walkman without a single focus group.

[Nick Martell]

Why?

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Because one of the co founders, Masaru Ibuka, wanted a device like it for himself to listen to music on an airplane. Early tests showed that people were confused by the product. Why would anybody buy a tape player that only played music and didn't record? But Ibuka pushed ahead nonetheless. He famously said, don't worry, this isn't a product you explain. This is a product you try.

[Nick Martell]

I guess there's no universal rule for when to follow the data or when to trust your your instincts. But the Walkman is the perfect example of innovation born from personal curiosity, not from market research.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

The Walkman is a gut product, not a graph product. All right, before we go, it's time for our absolute favorite part of the show, the best facts yet.

[Nick Martell]

These are the hero stats, the facts and the surprises we discovered in our research. But we just couldn't squeeze into the story.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Nick, kick us off. Let it.

[Nick Martell]

All right, here we go, man. Now this one was a personal interest to me because there were over 300 different versions of the Walkman released. But there was also a limited edition silver plated model made in partnership with the jeweler Tiffany & Co. Which marked the Walkman's 10th anniversary in 1989.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

It probably had one cassette built in. Breakfast at Tiffany's.

[Nick Martell]

Oh, absolutely. Preloaded jack.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Here's my favorite fact, Nick. The original Walkman had a surprising social twist. Two headphone jacks so you could listen to music with a friend at the same time. But here's the kicker. If you wanted to chat with your partner mid song, just hit the built in hotline button. It would mute the volume and activate a tiny microphone that was built in so you could talk without ever taking your headphones off.

[Nick Martell]

Oh, what's that you say? Sorry I couldn't hear you over my 80s Power Ballads mixtape.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Because nothing says friendship like tangling your headphone cables together and chit chatting over totally Eclipse of the heart. And that, my friends, is why the Sony Walkman is the best idea yet.

[Nick Martell]

Coming up on the next episode of the best idea yet, the show that launched the careers of Tina Fey, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, and more cowbell.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

It's Saturday Night Live, T DIY style.

[Nick Martell]

If you have a product you're obsessed with, but wish you knew the backstory, drop us a comment and we will dive into it.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Oh, and don't forget to rate and review the podcast five stars. That helps us grow the show.

[Nick Martell]

The best idea yet is a production of wondery hosted by me Nick Martell.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

And me Jack Revici Kramer. Our senior producers are Matt Beagle and Chris Gautier.

[Nick Martell]

Peter Arconi is our additional Senior producer.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Our senior Managing Producer is Callum Plews and Jake Kleinberg is our Managing Producer. This episode was written and produced by Adam Skuse.

[Nick Martell]

Production and research by H. Conley. We use many sources in our research, including the book Sony by John Nathan and the official Sony history from the company's website.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Sound design and mixing by Kelly Kramerek.

[Nick Martell]

Fact checking by Erica Janik Music supervision.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

By Scott Velazquez and Jolina Garcia for Frisson Sync.

[Nick Martell]

Our theme song is Got that Feeling Again by Blackalac. Executive producers for Nick and Jack Studios.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Are me, Nick Marcus and me Jack Crevici Kramer.

[Nick Martell]

The Executive producers for Wondery are Jenny Lauer Beckman, Aaron o' Flaherty and Marshall Louie.

[Jack Crevici Kramer]

Follow the Best Idea yet on the Wondery App, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to every episode of the Best Idea yet early and ad free right now by joining Wondery plus in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

[Nick Martell]

Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short [e-mail] survey.