Beech Tree News Network

This past weekend, I was thinking about how far we’ve come pertaining to how we listen to music.  I probably bought my first cassette in about 1985.  I didn’t get into cd’s until sometime in the mid-90’s.  The iPod came later for me.  Just when did all these forms of entertainment originate?

Before tapes, there was vinyl.  The first commonly produced vinyl records were introduced by RCA Victor in 1930.  They were 12 inches in diameter and were played back at 33 rpm’s.  LP’s were introduced in 1957.  The advent of the CD cut into vinyl, as it would tapes.  Vinyl couldn’t produce the same high quality sound as a cd.

Cassettes were introduced in 1963.   They would soon catch up with the quality of the 8 track, and they kept improving.  They became a popular (and re-recordable) alternative to the 12-inch vinyl LP’s during the late ‘70’s.  Cassettes were used for portable audio, home recording, and data storage in early micro-computers. Between the early ‘70’s and late ‘90’s, cassettes were one of the most common formats of pre-recorded music.

Phillips introduced the Compact Disc in 1979(a fantastic year, by the way).  In 1982, manufacturing of cd’s began on a large scale in a factory (location not given).  Also in ’82, the first ever compact disc was released by Sony, Billy Joel’s 52nd Street.  The following year, c.d. players and discs hit the markets, both United States and worldwide. 

The concept of the recordable c.d. (CD-R) was born in 1988.  DVD technology hit in 1996 and was released in ’97.  This sidelined cd’s.  In 1999, the Super Audio cd is released by Sony and Phillips as higher quality audio recording.

In 2000, DVR prototypes were introduced.  In 2003, the first Blu-Ray players were released in Japan.  In 2008, sales for large-label cd’s dropped 20% due to the rising popularity of MP3 Audio.  In January 2001, i-tunes was introduced as merely an MP3 player and CD burner.  The App Store was introduced in 2008. 

Ten years after i-tunes was introduced, I got an i-pod for Christmas.  You could call me one of the final hold-outs, I guess.  I listen to it every day on the treadmill.  The end of the 20th Century saw the debut in popularity of internet radio.  Last Christmas, I got a Kindle and soon got hooked on Pandora (June 2011) and iHeart Radio (September 2011-revamped).  I took advantage of Kindle’s “Free Apps” day and the two radio outlets were a part of it, so I got them both.  I’ve found that I prefer iHeart Radio. 

There you have it.  A short history of how we listen to our music.  Who would’ve thought back in the early to mid-1900’s that we’d be listening to music out of a tiny square and two little ear-buds, or that we can hear music on the same device we read books.

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Hello, my name is Andy Sullivan. I received my bachelor’s degree in business from Mid-Continent University in May 2009. I began writing for Beech Tree News in July 2009.  I enjoy playing guitar, the occasional Wii game, writing, and listening to music. I write a sports blog that can be found at http://www.tumblr.com/blog/sports-news-and-views.  If you have a comment, feel free to leave it in the space below.