The journey of personal audio listening
The music world as it stands is a strange one. As a whole we no longer own music. Streaming is the done thing, and it has fundamentally changed the way we consume music. Meanwhile, everything is going wireless – less is more, cables seem oldfashioned, and the chances of you seeing someone walking around looking like a special agent with buds in their ears is increasing. However, can streaming bring the music industry back up to track where it was in its heyday? Potentially, but first, we must look at how we got here.
Revolutionary sound
1877, remember it? Well, it was the start of it all, with the invention of the cylinder phonograph, the first real commercial sound reproducer. It enabled people to listen to music from the comfort of their own homes. In essence, it was extremely revolutionary and has changed the way we listen to music ever since. It worked mechanically using a needle that traced the groove on the cylinder, vibrating the needle back and forth. These vibrations hit the diaphragm, creating sound waves that you can hear out of a large horn, creating the music.
A decade later saw the introduction of Emile Berliner’s gramophone. It worked in a similar manner, but instead of a cylinder, it utilised discs, technically making it the first “record player.” Berliner’s gramophone took what made the phonograph revolutionary and improved it, and was itself developed over the following decades. Recording traced a line along a rotating zinc disc that was coated in wax and oil. Then, the disc had to be electroplated, creating a negative disc with grooves that projected outward. This could then be used as a master to imprint other discs, making it possible to quickly mass-produce records. After experimenting with different materials, Berliner settled on using rubber and later a shellac compound for his discs. These were far easier to mass-produce, store, and were more durable than cylinders, and became the dominant format going forward.
Let’s fast-forward to 1948 and the introduction of the LP (long-player). Peter Carl Goldmark made a record out of plastic vinyl that could be recorded on both sides, allowing for multiple songs on one record. Although traditional records stayed in the market for decades, the LP took sound recording to the next level. The LP helped to develop the music industry into what we know today.
In the 1960s and 1970s, turntables became a lot more popular commercially, with the introduction of stereo playback. They used the same concept as phonographs and gramophones but with electrical components, making them more efficient and easier to use. Stereo playback could produce louder and clearer sounds.
Skip back a bit towards the late 1950s, though, and alongside vinyls was the creation of the RCA magnetic tape, yet again revolutionising the music industry.
It wasn’t an instant success, but it allowed recording on a smaller device for greater portability. Car manufacturers using this technology led to the tape’s rapid rise in popularity, and by the late 1960s many cars offered eight-track players. For the first time it was possible to listen to music while you drove.
Sony hit the nail on the head with the Walkman in 1979, transforming personal audio listening to a very similar form factor to what’s used today – the personal music player. You could take cassette music with you anywhere you wanted. The freedom this gave was massive, and has only been improved on since.
The Digital age
The mid 80s saw the rise of the digital era. CDs took full form and flooded the music market. A “compact disc” version of a record, it required lasers to read the data off of a track instead of a needle. A smaller form factor made production easier and more accessible.
Unfortunately, CDs started to plummet in the early 2000s with the introduction of online music sites such as Napster. Piracy became a huge problem, hitting the music industry hard as illegal file-sharing of music boomed. The damage was done immediately, and sharing music on the internet remains to this day.
Personal digital audio listening became huge as the Walkman was replaced by MP3 players and the mega-popular iPod. It was now possible to store whole libraries of your favorite music right in your pocket with one of these devices, creating a huge increase in download sales. Also, with CD burning you could take your beloved CDs and turn them into MP3 files. Although CD sales dwindled more and more, they were and are still usable today.
The final step in the journey was the introduction of music-streaming sites in the mid 2000s, paving the way for the future of music listening and the decline of physical copies. It’s given people the opportunity to access music at the click of a button. Sites like Spotify in 2011 managed to license a huge library of music – the first one to do so. From then on, streaming music has become the most popular and accessible way to listen to songs. Music is with us everywhere we go now, and we have quick and easy access to the world’s library of music at our fingertips on almost any device.