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Phonograph is created
Thomas Edison creates the Phonograph while trying to improve the telegraph. It’s original use to create noise to resemble words. The first words he recorded were “Mary had a little lamb” -
First Radio Activity
Reginald Fessenden creates the first voice and music played on a public radio, speaking bible verses and playing his violin. -
Radios become commercial
60% of Americans had radios in their homes, and it becomes the most popular form of entertainment. -
Vinyl Records
Columbia Records creates the first LP (Long Playing) vinyl record. -
Radio music used as form of protest
Folk and Indie musicians used their fame to protest to Vietnam War both on the radio and in person, infighting many protests and strikes across the country. -
CD's announced
Philips announce the "Compound Disk" will take over vinyl records for playing music. The first CD commercially pressed was "The Visitors" by Abba. -
First public music sharing
The website “Napster’ becomes popular, a website where you could publically share music files with people all over the world. -
iTunes
Apple launches iTunes, a place where you can buy music online in order to put it on their newly released iPod. -
Streaming begins
Pandora uses listener’s preferences to create playlists listeners could stream. Unlike iTunes where the user got to purchase and download songs onto their device, Pandora gave you a selection of songs they thought you would enjoy to play online. -
Spotify
Spotify launches to try and solve the music piracy crisis. Artists were promised small royalties every time their music was played, and consumers either had to pay a monthly fee or listen to ads every few songs. -
Streamers becoming a problem
For the first yer ever, Apple's yearly music sales went down at the hands of streaming. -
Where we are now
Streaming is at an all time high despite royalties being at an all time low. Commercial radio is suffering due to so many accessible services. Online purchases continue to decrease while Vinyl record sales are on the rise.