This weeks blog task is to discuss the most important audio discovery in the last 50 years. Rather than just one specific audio discovery, I’d like to venture into the topic of the evolution of the portable music player over the last 50 years or so. Of course I could focus on the single discovery of the ever so popular 1979 SONY Walkman itself or even the 2001 Apple iPod that has now dominated the world of portable music players, however I think it’s interesting to take a good look at how in fact these discoveries began, how they evolved and where portable music players are today in 2016.
In 1954 the first ever monophonic portable transistor radio was invented by Texas Instruments and the Industrial Development Engineering Associates. It was called the ‘Regency TR-1’, weighed 340 grams, sold 100,000 times and sold out after 6 months. It was extremely popular, not only because you could listen to the radio outside of the home, it had a revolutionary design and came in an assortment of colours. For a cost of $49.90 you could own one of these, which is equivelent to about $450 in today’s world.
Eight years later in 1962, the first portable stereo music player was invented, otherwise referred to as the ‘boombox’ and consisted of a vinyl record player and 2 speakers. It was compact and folded into a suitcase. This discovery paved the way for future portable music players.
Along came 1965, at which time Phillips released their compact cassette tape. It was predominantly used for recording dictations. You could play up to 45 mins on a single tape. With this release was the Phillips stereo portable cassette player which dominated the best of 20 years after it’s release. Although portable, it weighed about 1.5kgs, operated with 5 flashlight batteries which lasted about 20 hours of continuous play. Special features included the ability to fast-forward and re-wind. It was quite an expensive device at $150, which is equivalent to about $900 today.
1979 was a very exciting year. The year of a revolutionary invention. It was the birth of the first real walkman, the SONY TPS-L2. Although at a cost of $274, it was one of the most popular devices to ever hit the market, particularly amongst the youth. It was small, compact and lightweight at only 500grams, one third of the weight of the previous Phillips cassette player. It also had a couple of extra features including two headphone jacks so that two people could listen simultaneously and also a ‘hotline’ button which activated a microphone and stopped the music which allowed the listeners to speak to each other. It was an outrageous success with over 200 million sold.
In the early 1980’s the world of digital music was introduced with the discovery of the compact disc or CD as we know it. In 1984 SONY were quick to release a portable CD player known as the Discman. This was the first ever portable digital music player and praised for it’s sound quality, ability to skip and repeat tracks and remote control capabilities. On 4 x AA batteries this device would play continuous music for only 2 hours. It also weighed about 1kg. Although it was a big seller, it wasn’t very portable as any knocks or bumps would disrupt the playback. The cost was $350, about $700 in today’s world. Later models and brands soon released versions of the Discman with anti-shock capabilities which deemed the product more profitable.
In 1998 the first ever Mp3 player was released by ‘Saehan’ a South Korean company called the ‘MPman’. It came with 32MB of RAM (or extended to 64MB) which on average held only about 8 tracks of music. It weighed only 65 grams and had a rechargeable battery pack lasting 9 hours. At $400 it wasn’t a huge success. It was difficult to use and this resulted in poor sales.
2001 was a major milestone in portable music technology with Steve Jobs at Apple Computers releasing the first ever iPod. It was praised for it’s sleek minimalistic design and fancy interface, which set it apart from competitors. With a whopping 5GB HD and a catchy advertisement slogan of ‘1000 songs in your pocket’ the Apple iPod took the world by storm. Weighing 185 grams, offering 9 hours of continuous play and a rechargeable battery the iPod won the hearts of many. Since it’s first release many revised editions of the iPod have entered the market with 250 million sold and counting today. Apple iPods these days feature HD screens, cameras, applications, games, storage, books, wifi capabilities and countless amenities. The iPod has evolved into a mini computer that fits in the palm of your hand.
With many illegal websites and applications designed for sharing music, Apple released iTunes in 2003. It was a simple yet cost effective way to buy music online. It was fast, convenient and most importantly it was legal. With the development of iPods and iTunes, local record stores became practically extinct. Like most Apple products and services, other brands have attempted to copy but have had no success. These days artists use iTunes as an offical platform for advertising and promotion of their music.
I think it’s really interesting to look back on the evolution of portable music players over the course of 50 years or so. To evolve from a monophonic AM radio device in 1954 to a practically lightweight multi-functional computer in your hand in 2016, portable music technology has definitely come a very long way.
REFRENCES
Anthony Murdock (2012, May 11). Evolution of portable music playersRetrieved from https://youtu.be/3cURYuD79Xg
B N J M N 
Leave a comment