I grew up in the 90s and I really miss the music players we had back then. I missed them so much that I ended up spending the last eight years working on my own.
Mimi Tape is basically the MP4 player I always wanted. It works without a phone, plays music and videos, and uses little cassette-shaped cards. I also wanted it to feel nice to hold and be something you can fidget with.
There are some cute things built into it too, like ambient sounds and videos of a fireplace, fish swimming, rain and other relaxing stuff. I wanted something I could leave playing next to me while studying or falling asleep.
I studied in Japan and made some friends there who helped me with the player. Some of them work at Sony and have worked on Walkman products, so they knew a lot about portable music players and the technical side of making one.
I’ve been thinking about this thing for a very long time, and I’m excited to finally show it to other people.
Mimi Tape is an independent project and isn’t connected to or endorsed by Sony.