Three Reasons My Sony Walkman Was Better Than Your iPod
The Sony Walkman, the device that turned the idea of carrying your own music around with you from a crazy fantasy to a reality, turned 30 years old last week. The BBC had an interesting article a few days ago written by 13-year-old Scott Campbell who carried a Walkman around for a week to see how it "used to be", coming to the conclusion that the Sony Walkman wasn't far short of pure barbarism and wondering how anyone could have ever thought it was a "credible piece of technology?"
Like many people who grew up with the Walkman, I found myself this past week caught up in the nostalgia of being a teenager walking around town with a backpack pouch full of mix tapes and spare batteries. I did enjoy the BBC article but I found myself instinctively wanting to answer Scott's criticisms: Sure, it wasn't pocket friendly, but let's face it, neither is a 160 GB iPod Classic unless you're wearing cargo pants, and at least the Walkman had a belt clip you didn't have to buy separately. Likewise, the tapes he was using may have only held 10 tracks, but a handful of blank 120-minute Maxell tapes meant you could make a mix that would last you the bus ride to Bellingham. I mean, I won't pretend I don't like my MP3 player much, much better, but all things considered the Walkman was no slouch even for its day.
While I'm still wearing the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, I'm going to present three reasons why my Walkman was actually better than a modern iPod. Now, Scott carried around a truly original Walkman, one of the earlier models, so his comments about clunkiness and poor battery life were well-founded--but if you want to truly square up the Walkman to the most recent iPods, let's consider a later model such as the WM-FX325 I carried back in the early 90's so we're closer to comparing apples to...well, Apples.
1) Lower Cost of Ownership--When the Walkman debuted in 1979 it cost $200 (or $589 in today's dollars), but in the mid-90's when Walkmans were truly as ubiquitous as the iPod is today, you could easily find a quality lightweight portable cassette player for $30-$50. The Walkman ran on AA batteries, which you could expect about 25 or so hours of playtime, but a good set of rechargeables meant that battery waste wasn't really an issue. And when your batteries finally gave up the ghost, it didn't mean having to purchase a whole new device, or shipping your device to have the factory replace it.
The average album on iTunes costs $9.99. Cassette albums also averaged about that price, so the per-song cost was about the same--unless you throw DRM into the mix. On iTunes, the same album you bought before the very recent full switch to iTunes Plus will cost you $12.99 (or 30% more than the purchase price) to have a DRM-free version. Tapes of course came with no DRM--not for lack of the RIAA desiring it, but whatever you bought, you owned free and clear and could make backup copies and mix tapes to your heart's content.
2) More Features out of the Box--Sounds odd, doesn't it? But it's true: iPods are great dedicated music players but they don't load you down with a ton of features unless you buy one of the higher-end iPod Videos. Like iPods, not all Walkmans came with the same feature set, but for the price of a 1GB Shuffle you could get Dolby B noise reduction, automatic volume limiters, a basic equalizer, and repeat album functions (using auto-reverse).
Oh, and an FM radio...which you could record.
3) Mix Tapes and the lack of DRM--Speaking of which, when old coots like me get misty-eyed over the days of cassettes, it's usually because of this. With a handful of 120-minute blank cassettes, you could make several hours' worth of mixes; not the 30,000-song capacity of an iPod for sure, but plenty enough to last you a long car trip or airplane ride.
Making mix tapes to trade amongst friends was a great way to get introduced to new music in the days before digital samples and listening booths. Most of my favorite bands from that decade, I first heard on someone else's mix. And who from the 90's can forget the labor of love making a mix tape for your significant other? It took hours as opposed to the fire-and-forget nature of digital music mixes, but that also meant the gesture was more appreciated--a physical gift that was also a kind of love letter.
The iPod is in many (okay, most) ways superior to the Walkman, but the Walkman truly introduced the idea of a convenient portable personal music library. And even with the hassle of carrying cassettes around, it truly was an affordable, durable, easy-to-use way to take your music with you--not as convenient as the iPod, but really not that bad. On any given day in 1994 I was carrying about 16 hours' worth of music in my backpack--laptops not really being on the scene yet, there was plenty of room in a bag for a small cassette case of mix tapes and the latest albums, and it fit just fine alongside my books and art supplies.
Now you dang kids get off my lawn!
--Aric A.
Alex on July 06, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Haha, awesome! Well said.
Brandon M. Baker on July 08, 2009 at 12:11 PM
I was still using a Walkman until 2005...one of the biggest reasons for my switch were the snickers from others at the gym.
Say what you will about the Zune, but including an FM tuner is the rare example of MS getting something right, first time out of the box.
jbs on July 10, 2009 at 01:40 PM
Brilliant article, Aric. Made me LOL.
Boy... do I miss the days of making mix tapes. What a great, and fun way to spend a rainy day at home.
The amount of thought and creativity that would go into making one... if I only I could tap into some of that today!
BRS on August 28, 2009 at 08:39 AM
Note: I am one of those loons that collect the Sony Walkman models. I can't think of ANY walkman that could record the radio. There was a high-end Sony recorder, but I don't think it had this feature either.
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