"The phonograph is invented by American inventor Thomas Edison in 1877. This machine has the capacity to record and playback sound. The phonograph uses a diaphragm made of metal foil and two needles, which was the basis for a myriad of other modes of music consumption and recording in the future.”
"A follow-up to the phonograph was the gramophone, which resembles a traditional record player that uses a flat disk and a needle to play and record music. Emile Berliner’s 1887 invention succeeded Edison’s and became the dominant format of music consumption for many decades.”
"In 1906, the first radio broadcast of music occurred in the United States. Men manning ships in New England were stunned to hear a voice reading out a Christmas story with an accompanying violin lulling, “Silent Night”, before returning to the Morse code common on these vessels. Reginald Fessenden, the broadcaster, and Lee de Forest worked on a radio tube called the Audion, allowing for the first national broadcast in 1920."
"Columbia Records develops the long-playing record in 1948, which plays at 33⅓ revolutions per minute and can hold up to 20 minutes of music per side. With radio now broadcasting popular music and different genres across different stations, the music industry was able to rapidly change and expand. This invention becomes the standard format for recorded music, with families purchasing record players for home and personal use."
"The cassette tape was introduced by the Dutch company Philips in 1963. Cassettes, unlike vinyl, use magnetic tape to record and play audio. The cassette is much smaller than a traditional record, leading to portable music consumption."
"The Walkman invented by the Japanese company Sony in 1979 was a portable cassette player. Before the Walkman, cassettes could be played on boomboxes, yet the light and compact device truly revolutionized consumption with its headphone jacks and versatility."
"CDs, also known as compact discs, were introduced in 1982 in collaboration with Philips and Sony. CDs have around 80 minutes of capacity and quickly overcame vinyl and cassette sales thanks to CD players and other technological advances in the late 20th century."
"Shawn Fanning, a college student at Northeastern developed the website Napster in 1999, birthing web-based music consumption. Napster was a file-sharing service that allowed users to send electronic copies of MP3 files to each other. Users did this for free, enacting a legal battle between Napster and music corporations and opening the conversation about file sharing and where music’s place is online."
"Apple launches the iTunes store in 2003, where users can purchase and download musical content over the Internet. Despite Napster’s success, iTunes revolutionized the music industry by creating a marketplace for digital music."
"The Recording Industry Association of America reports digital music sales surpassed those of all physical sales for the first time in 2006."
"Streaming services such as Spotify account for 84% of music industry revenue in 2022."