Background and Identification

In 1982, Sony released the first commercial CD audio player into the market with the Sony CDP-101 at a price tag of $900 USD. CD, which stands for compact discs, were fairly expensive as well, with the average CD costing around $30 at the time. Furthermore, these CDs were only manufactured at two facilities in the entire world, and each of these facilities were solely owned by Philips and Sony. 52nd Street by Billy Joel was the first CD title available in 1982, and by the end of the year, over 100 CD titles were available for purchase. CD players significantly expanded in 1983 when they were introduced to the U.S. market. In that year, over 30,000 CD players and 800,000 CDs were sold just in the U.S.

With this rising technology, consumers and product developers explored new ways to incorporate it into everyday life. Listening to audio and music on-the-go became a staple to CD players, and soon Sony introduced the Discman D-50 in 1984, which was later renamed to the CD Walkman in 1997 due in large part to the number of users who would walk around listening to their music. Portable CD players also benefited from electronic skip protection, which was a data buffer system that stopped audio from playing when a disc couldn’t be read due to physical movement.

Additional Information

• History of the Compact Disc

• The History of the Walkman (The Verge)

• CD Player Wikipedia