Walkman
trademark
Walkman (Japanese: ウォークマン, Hepburn: Wōkuman) is a brand of portable audio players manufactured by Sony since 1979. It was originally introduced as a portable cassette player and later expanded to include a range of portable audio products. Since 2011, the brand has referred exclusively to digital flash memory players.
The Walkman became widely popular during the 1980s for its portable design and private listening experience. It influenced popular culture by promoting individualized music consumption and supporting activities such as aerobics. Its widespread use gave rise to the "Walkman effect", a term describing how portable music devices and headphones allow listeners to control their sonic environment. In 1986, "Walkman" was added to the Oxford English Dictionary, and in some markets the term became a genericized trademark for portable audio players. The Walkman also contributed to the widespread adoption of the Compact Cassette format, which surpassed vinyl record sales in 1983. Sony sold approximately 220 million cassette-based Walkman units before ending production in 2010.
Sony also achieved commercial success with its CD-based models (originally marketed as the Discman, later rebranded as the CD Walkman), and by 2010, cumulative sales of all Walkman devices had reached around 400 million units.
“Walkman” enters the record as trademark. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Walkman and trademark can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Walkman” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Walkman and trademark provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q622493. The Library of Congress control number is sh2017004000. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 2011, 1986 and 1983.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Walkman”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Walkman primary sources, Walkman archive and Walkman research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Walkman”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Walkman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.