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Organette
Organettes were the first music players, allowing a variety of music to be played whenever the user desired; the spools at both ends recoiled the material and allowed the music to be played again and again easily ("History of the Pianola - Organettes"). -
Phonograph
While working to improve the telegraph, Thomas Edison accidentally created the phonograph. The first words he recorded were, "Mary Had A Little Lamb." This technology used a wax cylinder on which the vibrations of the speaker's voice would be imprinted ("Edison Invents the Phonograph"). -
Roller Organ
Roller organs used perforated material of various kinds to create music; users had to hand-crank the instrument when they wanted to hear music ("History of the Pianola - Organettes"). -
Music Box
Music boxex used cardboard discs that revolved and were intermittently struck by goose quills to produce the desired tones ("The Age of the Music Box"). -
Gramophone
Emile Berliner invents the gramophone, an improvement of Edison's phonograph. The gramophone uses a zinc disc coated in beeswax and gasoline. The vibrations are etched into the zinc, and they are preserved by the coating. This allowed better sound quality and longer-lasting "records" ("The Early Gramophone"). -
Victrola
The Victrola was meant for use within the home and was smaller and sleeker than music-players that had come before it ("Triumph of the Disc"). -
Picture Discs
Picture discs featured images on the disc, much like modern CDs. These pictures were often used as propaganda. The sound quality of picture discs was very poor, but was seen as a novelty at the time ("Picture Discs"). -
KDKA Radio Station
KDKA in Pittsburgh, PA becomes first radio station to broadcast and announces Presidential election information ("People and Discoveries: KDKA"), -
78s
78s were named because they rotated 78 times per minute. They could play for up to five minutes, as opposed to the cylinder of Edison's phonograph, which could only play for two minutes ("10 Inch 78 RPM Record"). -
Voice-O-Graph
The Voice-O-Graph allowed speakers to record a 65 second song or message that could be sent to loved ones, like a so-called talking telegram. The records could only be played a few times before becoming unintelligible ("Voice-O-Graph"). -
Jukebox
The Wurlitzer held 24 discs at a time. Jukeboxes were frowned upon by parents because they thought the swing and jazz music were bad influences for their children ("Jukebox"). -
Cassette
Cassette tapes are made available commercially, and cost roughly half as much as records, making them wildly popular ("Cassette Culture"). The cassette was also much more portable and therefore more appealling. -
8 Track Tape
The 8 track tape allowed users to pinpoint which song they would like to hear and was featured in Ford's 1966 cars ("8-Track Tapes Belong in a Museum"). -
CDs and CD Player
The CD is unveiled by Sony and Philips (popular present-day companies). The size was set at 12 cm because it was agreed that it must be able to hold all of Beethoven's 9th Symphony ("How the CD Was Developed"). -
iPod
The first iPod was created in 2001 and held hundreds of songs in mp3 format, which is still used to transfer music files between computers and even phones ("iPod").
