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Music Box
The first self-playing music device was a music box. Pins on a disc or cylinder hit little combs of notes to produce music. -
Graphophone
Alexander Graham Bell created the graphophone with the idea of recording sound and being able to play it back. It was supposed to be for recording conversations, but it lead the way to something more. -
Gramophone
Emile Berliner makes a modification to the graphophone and records sound using flat discs instead of the graphophone's cylinders. -
Headphones
Nathaniel Baldwin develops headphones, unfortunately uncomfortable without the pads like in modern headphones. -
First Radio Station
KDKA, Pittsburgh’s Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company produces the first scheduled radio broadcast. -
78 RPM
Flat disc records are growing in popularity, they get industry-standard revolutions per minute set at 78. -
Magnetic Tape
Fritz Pfleumer uses iron oxide powder and thin paper to create the first magnetic tape. -
Magnetophone K1 recorder
AEG licenses Pfleumer’s design and created the Magnetophone tape recorder and it becomes commercially successful. -
Sound in Stereo
Bell Labs makes a two-channel stereo that can split more than one track of sound from one original recording. -
Vocoder
Bell Labs creates the first autotune with a vocal synthesizer that could manipulate voice pitch. -
Regency TR1
The first portable transistor radio goes on sale to the general public, once again the design comes from Bell Labs. -
KLH Model 11
Henry Kloss creates the first portable stereo. The record player, amplifier, and two speakers fit into a suitcase like design and was powered by A/C power. -
Philips Compact Cassette
Phillips comes out with the first compact cassette tape. A 1/8 inch tape that could hold up to 45 minutes of recordings. Along with the tape, Philips came out with a Carry-Corder 150 cassette recorder that ran on batteries. -
8-track tapes
8 track tapes rose in popularity in the late 1960s. They really kicked off when Ford Motor Company started to put them in their 1966 line of cars. -
Boombox
Philips comes out with a better version of their cassette player. No messing with microphones or cables, just a radio cassette deck with speakers. -
SL-1200 turntable
Technics creates the first electronic direct-drive turntable. It becomes popular with radio stations and recording studios. -
Walkman
Sony comes out with the Walkman, pair the cassette tape and headphones to make moving music even easier. -
Compact Disc
Sony and Phillips figure out how to convert digital data into analog sound with laser-beam reflections and create compact discs. -
Discman
Sony comes out with the D-50 portable compact disc player which quickly became popular. -
MP3 Player
Karlheinz Bradenburg and Moving Picture Experts Group create a way to compress audio files without losing any of the quality. The Fraunhofer Institut Integrierte Schaltungen research center patents the MP3 process and design and people start developing the device. -
iPod
Apple’s hardware engineers and Jonathan Ive try to one-up the MP3 player. They created the 5GB iPod that could hold a thousand songs and started Apple’s popular line of devices. -
iPod mini, photo, and 4G
Apple upgrades it’s iPod in several different versions. The newest had up to 60GB of space and the devices were the most popular music player at this time. -
iPhone
Over the years Apple comes out with more versions of the iPod, each one with more capacity and features than the last. Then they come out with the iPhone, all of the music and capabilities of the iPod along with the features of a smartphone. -
Smartphones
Every company from Apple to Samsung comes up with new designs for new devices with music-playing capabilities.