Music Industry and Distribution History

By Charlie Wolff

  • First Commercial Disk

    Wax cylinders are also in use as a recording media.

  • Electrical Recording Equipment

    First time electrical equipment was used to record to sound, following the method of standing close to a horn.

  • First Commercial Release of Reel to Reel Tape Recorder

  • FM Radio

    FM Radio's popularity increases during post-war period with the increased number of radio transmitters.

  • 33.3 RPM LP Record

    Introduced by Columbia Records

  • 45 RPM Record

    Introduced by RCA Victor

  • Transistor Radio

    Previous radios were large and cumbersome because they used vacuum tubes, but the use of transistors made the tech more portable.

  • First 8-Track Tape Recorder

    Introduced by Les Paul to create multi-track recordings

  • Stereo LPs

    They were made available to the public.

  • Compact Cassette Introduced

    Introduced by Philips - mass production began in 64'.

  • First 16-Track Tape Recorder Introduced

  • E-Mail

    First E-Mail sent. The sending and recieving computers were in the same room.

  • Walkman Cassete

    Portable player introduced by Sony.

  • First Release of a Digitally Recorded Album

  • USENET

    Bulletin board for online discussions created.

  • CD Player

    Introduced by Sony and Phillips

  • CD Vs LP

    CD Sales exceed LP Sales for the first time.

  • World Wide Web

    Invented by British Born Tim Berners-Lee

  • MP3

    Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) standardise this new compression format.

  • First Personal Blog

    Justin Hall launches his own website.

  • Classmates.com

    The ability to discover long-lost school friends was created. Considered the first social networking site.

  • AskJeeves

    First question / answer search engine is created.

  • AIM

    Created to give users the opportunity to message others in real time.

  • Open Diary

    Created for users to create and comment on online journals without the need to know HTML.

  • LiveJournal and Blogger

    The ability to create blogs and online journals with up to the minute info.

  • Wikipedia

  • Broadband

  • iPod

    Released by Apple for the first time.

  • iTunes

    Legal downloads for music become available through this online store.

  • Popularity of Online Music Distribution

    More than a quarter of all recorded music revenues worldwide are now coming from digital channels.