FORMAT / STRUCTURED RECORD

MP3

Documentary record connected to the editorial archive.

A compressed-audio format associated in the available evidence with reducing music-file size and playing song collections on small devices. The source places Fraunhofer IIS and Thomson Multimedia’s announcement of patent licensing related to the technology in 1998.

ENTITY DATA

Type: Format
Year: Pending verification
Country or region: Global / undetermined
Status: Documented

VERIFIED SOURCES

References

Historia del MP3 (1977-2026) - ACUSMATICAbrave_web · 65%
Los inicios de la música online (Infografía)brave_web · 65%

The available evidence places the presentation of Sony’s Walkman in July 1979 and describes it as a portable stereo player associated with lightweight headphones. This analysis considers what that documentation supports, why the object matters to the cultural history of listening, and which questions require further sources.

Open story

Analysis · 1970

1970: A Crossroads of Records, Advertising, Museums and Portable Listening

The available evidence makes 1970 a useful year for observing how music circulated at once as an album, a collectible object, an advertising resource and a technological experience. It also requires a careful distinction between documented facts and common simplifications about the Walkman.

Open story

Analysis · 1970

From Cassette to Smartphone: A Careful History of Portable Listening

The supplied sources outline a journey through music recording and playback in which the cassette, Walkman, MP3 players, distribution platforms, and smartphone changed the conditions of listening. The case also requires distinguishing popular chronologies from what these references actually allow us to establish.

Open story

Analysis · 1970

From Phonograph to Walkman: What Changes When Music Becomes Portable

A cautious reading of two documented moments in the history of recorded music: the Museu de la Música de Barcelona’s acquisition of phonographs and gramophones in 1970, and the Walkman’s introduction as a portable stereo player in 1979. The comparison highlights changes in scale and use without mistaking the available evidence for a complete history of the format.

Open story

History · 1970

Music Left the Room: Listening Alone with the Walkman

From the phonograph to the portable player, changes in formats also transformed where and how people listened to music. The Walkman’s history offers an entry point into that transition—and into what objects and archives can tell us about it.

Open story

Analysis · 1970

Listening to music alone: what the sources tell us about the Walkman

The Walkman is often presented as a symbol of portable listening. Yet the available sources even disagree about its date: that discrepancy shows what we can—and cannot—claim about changing listening habits.

Open story

Analysis · 1970

The Walkman took music beyond the room

The Walkman is remembered as a turning point in portable listening, but the available sources place that change within a broader history of sound recording, personal devices and digital distribution. They also show why documented dates should be distinguished from retrospective accounts.

Open story

MP3

References

Related stories

1970 or 1979: The Date Worth Revisiting in Walkman History

From Phonograph to Walkman: How Portable Listening Changed

Walkman: Private Listening in Public

1970: A Crossroads of Records, Advertising, Museums and Portable Listening

From Cassette to Smartphone: A Careful History of Portable Listening

From Phonograph to Walkman: What Changes When Music Becomes Portable

Music Left the Room: Listening Alone with the Walkman

Listening to music alone: what the sources tell us about the Walkman

The Walkman took music beyond the room