# Personal stereo

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A **personal stereo**, or **personal cassette player**, is a [portable audio player](/source/Portable_audio_player) for [cassette tapes](/source/Cassette_tape). This allows the user to listen to music through [headphones](/source/Headphones) while walking, jogging or relaxing. Personal stereos typically have a belt clip or a shoulder strap so a user can attach the device to a belt or wear it over their shoulder. Some personal stereos came with a separate battery case. With invention of compact radios based on [transistors](/source/Transistor) and [integrated circuits](/source/Integrated_circuit) and there was also many **portable radio** receivers with the support of **[FM stereo](/source/FM_stereo)** (optionally with [AM](/source/AM_broadcasting), [MW](/source/Medium_wave), [LW](/source/Longwave)) on the market.

## History

The [Sony Walkman](/source/Sony_Walkman) was released in 1979, created by [Akio Morita](/source/Akio_Morita), [Masaru Ibuka](/source/Masaru_Ibuka) (the co-founders of Sony) and [Kozo Ohsone](/source/Kozo_Ohsone). It became a popular and widely imitated consumer item in the 1980s. In everyday language, *walkman* became a [generic term](/source/Generic_trademark), referring to any personal stereo, regardless of producer or brand.[1] The spread of personal stereo devices contributed to tape cassettes outselling vinyl records for the first time in 1983. The introduction of the personal stereo coincided with the 1980s [aerobics](/source/Aerobics) vogue, making it very popular to listen to music during workouts. Moreover, the prevalence of portable cassette players correlates with a 30-percent increase in people walking for exercise between 1987 and 1997.[2]

In the 1990s, [portable CD players](/source/Portable_CD_player) became the most popular personal stereos.

With the rise of free-to-listen [FM stereo](/source/FM_stereo) stations broadcasting commercial music and talk shows 24/7, small size personal FM stereo devices that use plugged-in wired headsets as antennas have become cheaper alternatives to listening commercial music on tapes and CDs. At the same time, many personal cassette and CD players had built-in FM and AM.

See also: [Walkman#Portable radio receivers](/source/Walkman#Portable_radio_receivers)

In the 2000s, [digital players](/source/Portable_media_player) like the [iPod](/source/IPod) became the dominant personal stereos. During this period, [cell phones](/source/Cell_phone) and [smartphones](/source/Smartphone) also became popular music listening devices. Most of digital players and mobile phones has built-in FM stereo receiver, and some devices ([Sony Ericsson W980](/source/Sony_Ericsson_W980), [Nokia N79](/source/Nokia_N79)[3]) has also built-in FM stereo transmitter for [microbroadcasting](/source/Microbroadcasting).

## References

1. Mark Batey (2016), "Brand Meaning: Meaning, Myth and Mystique in Today's Brands", Second ed., Routledge, p. 140

1. Meaghan Haire (1 July 2009). ["The Walkman"](https://web.archive.org/web/20210128084123/http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1907884,00.html). *Time*. Archived from [the original](http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1907884,00.html) on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 8 June 2019.

1. ["Phone Finder results - GSMArena.com"](https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?sFreeText=fm+transmitter). *www.gsmarena.com*. Retrieved 2025-07-17.

## Further reading

- Erlmann, Veit (ed.) [*Hearing Cultures. Essays on Sound, Listening, and Modernity*](https://books.google.com/books?id=wRdj0p0BpBIC), New York: Berg Publishers, 2004. Cf. Chapter 9: "Thinking About Sound, Proximity, and Distance in Western Experience: The Case of Odysseus's Walkman" by Michael Bull.

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Personal stereo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_stereo) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_stereo?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.