Let us now look at Sony cassette tapes through the years. The 1960s, when Sony led the industry; the 1970s, when the cassette tape market expanded; the early 1980s, when the release of the Walkman brought demand for cassette tapes to its peak; the late 1980s and the 1990s, when the spread of CDs brought one compatible model after another; the 2000s, when the spread of digital technology drastically reduced the cassette tape market; and the 2010s, when the end came… Cassette tapes in Japan made that journey alongside Sony cassette tapes!