The Creation of the First Walkman

The Untold Story of the TPS-L2

In the summer of 1979, Sony introduced the compact cassette player that would forever change how we listened to music on the move: the Walkman. It quickly became a cultural icon, giving millions the ability to carry their personal soundtrack wherever they went and influencing every portable music device that followed. But beyond this breakthrough innovation lies a story of vision, ingenuity, and a little bit of luck.

The idea for the Walkman started with Masaru Ibuka, Sony’s co-founder, whose love for opera collided with the realities of travel in 1978. Ibuka was tired of lugging around the TC-D5, a bulky cassette recorder from Sony’s Denske series, which weighed in at a hefty kilogram. While technically portable, it was a burden to carry. One day, he simply asked Sony’s engineers to create something lighter—and that request sparked a chain of events that would change everything.