Sad Day for Music

[asmith]

I think a quiet moment to reflect on the good times is needed.

Sony retires the cassette Walkman after 30 years

By Lauren Indvik, Mashable

October 25, 2010

Full Article Here

After retiring the floppy disk in March, Sony has halted the manufacture and distribution of another now-obsolete technology: the cassette Walkman, the first low-cost, portable music player.

The final batch was shipped to Japanese retailers in April, according to IT Media. Once these units are sold, new cassette Walkmans will no longer be available through the manufacturer.

The first generation Walkman (which was called the Soundabout in the U.S., and the Stowaway in the UK) was released on July 1, 1979 in Japan.

Although it later became a huge success, it only sold 3,000 units in its first month. Sony managed to sell some 200 million iterations of the cassette Walkman over the product line's 30-year career.

Somewhat ironically, the announcement was delivered just one day ahead of the iPod's ninth anniversary on October 23, although the decline of the cassette Walkman is attributed primarily to the explosive popularity of CD players in the '90s, not the iPod.

[mkz]

Im actually surprised that they were still manufacturing these relics up until now!

And floppy disks?? Havent seen one in six years!

[Colt45]

  asmith said:

I think a quiet moment to reflect on the good times is needed.

shouldn't you be working?

[LeafLover]

No worries....

I still have my 8-track!

And my Atari.

[MIKA27]

How things have changed in such a short span of time and we're getting OLD!

I remember having my first walkman, it was HUGE but back then, we all thought they were the coolest, most advanced tech around and they were!

I still have a BETA MAX player at home stored away (Dont know why) as well as the first Pong game machine and an ATARI 2600! Funnily, those were great times (The era) and I find modern tech just doesn't stand the test of time IMO as no sooner new tech is created, it's also out dated within a few years.

[rfenst]

What ever happened to those large, spherical Panasonic AM/FM radios on a chain?

[mazolaman]

The walkman was such a cool piece of kit,the cd players that followed were never quite as good.

The mp3 players are the kings now but,the dewy eyed nostalgia comes back when I think of the walkman,up in the loft...

[yossie]

Hard to find tape products nowadays... feeling nostalgy as well.

[CanuckSARTech]

Just recently been going through a bout of nostalgia myself a few weeks back. Ended up searching out a couple of next-to-new Nintendo Game Boys. Found some classic games too - Tetris, Donkey Kong, Alleyway, Super Mario World, etc. Got one of the original Game Boys, and then one of the clear ones (from an Australian seller, too).

You just can't beat some of these groundbreaking original electronic devices - Walkman, Game Boys, Atari, etc.

[bassman]

I still play vinyl. As long as I can get a new needle for my turntable, I'm happy.

[micha]

That news actually made me a bit sad, when I heard it on the news. One of my strongest childhood memories is recording music from the radio and always listening to it on my red Sony Walkman. As much as I'm always curious about the latest technologies and want to try everything out that is new, I'm still deeply in love with the sound quality of a good tape or vinyl record. I'm glad to see vinyl finding its way back into music stores. I'm always blown away by the warmth, depth and dynamics of a record or tape being played on my stereo which actually makes most of my CDs sound absolutely flat and boring.

So, I'll just be joining in on that quiet moment of reflection.

Good call, Smithy!!!

[Cletus]

  mkz said:

And floppy disks?? Havent seen one in six years!

Sadly I had to use a floppy today. Can't install XP on most newer PCs without supplying disk controller drivers via floppy. Reminds me of an old joke: How did Microsoft get people to start using XP? They released Vista.

[Fuzz]

Ahh the good old days! This post made me go out today to pick up some button batteries for my original Donkey Kong dual screen.

[Ben]

Nah that's a classic

If I had a dollar for every hour I spent on Kong back in the day I'd be a rich man.