The History of Music Players: The Early Years

The Early Years of... MUSIC PLAVERS Music has changed a lot over the years, not just in the genres that are popular but in the devices we use to listen to our favourite songs. These days, a pair of headphones is virtually all you need, but things haven't always been this way... 6 The Phonoautograph 1857 The phonautograph was the first device to be able to record sound. However, it did not play it back. It was invented by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville in 1857. 6 The Phonograph 1877 Invented in 1877, the phonograph was the first method of recording and playing back sound. It was the phonograph that gave (the then little-known) inventor Thomas Edison, international fame. Edison went onto invent the motion picture camera and the light bulb, amongst a few other things...his 2,332 worldwide patents show he wasn't just a one hit wonder. The Gramophone c.1887 Invented around 10 years after the phonograph, Emile Berliner revolutionised the music industry by using flat discs (or records) to record on and produce sounds, rather than the cylinders that were used previously. Records were made of glass and you were required to use the hand crank to playback the songs that were produced through the gramophone speaker. After a few years, Berliner (and partner Eldridge Johnson) introduced a motor to keep records playing at a steady speed, rather than having to hand-crank them. 61 Victor Talking Machine 1906 After legal disputes between Berliner, Johnson and their former business partners, they moved on to form a separate company known as "RCA Victor". In order to accommodate a wide range of records being produced at the time, the Victor Talking Machine (released 1906) had variable speed settings. Double Sided Records 1908 In 1908, Columbia Records introduced the first double-sided phonograph records, doubling the storage capacity of each record (that were now made of plastic, rather than glass). ELECTRIC PECORDINGS: 1924, In 1924, electrical records started to replace the now outdated acoustic recordings due to a much superior sound quality. Acoustic records had to be recorded in a single live take, with a diaphragm capturing the sounds and a needle cutting the music straight into records. THE LP: 19LB -THE- LPs - also known as "albums" – were ALBUM invented in 1948, with Nathan Milstein performing the Mendelssohn violin concerto on the first ever LP release, with Beethoven's 8th symphony and a Frank Sinatra piece following soon after on 10 inch vinyls. The LP spins at 33 1/3 revolutions per minute and, despite being over 65 years old, is still the standard format for vinyl albums, minor refinements excluded. MULTITRACH RECORDING:1955 Multitrack recording was invented by Ross Snyder in 1955, who then sold his 'Sel-Sync' system to guitarist, composer and inventor Les Paul for just $10,000. Multitrack recording allows a musician to record separate sound sources onto the same 'track' - allowing the synchronised and simultaneous playback that we're used to hearing in songs every single day today. 1I||||||| THE RISE OF PORTABLE MEDIA... After these foundations were laid, music started to turn much more portable - with casettes, CDs and more, but that's for another infographic... Brought to you by: Superfi HiFi & Home Cinema Specialists www.superfi.co.uk Sources: amale16.weebly.com/1877-1928.html uthmag.com/music-players/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Edison en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Edison_patents en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sound_recording en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonautograph en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LP_record en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitrack_recording