Recording history
A moment, played again.
Recording changed sound from something that disappears into something we can keep, share and revisit.
The phonograph
Edison records and plays back sound.
The long-playing record
More music on a single vinyl disc.
The compact cassette
Recording becomes more portable.
The compact disc
Digital audio comes to the living room.
Before playback, there was a trace
Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s phonautograph traced sound vibrations. Edison’s phonograph of 1877 went further by recording and playing back sound. That difference mattered: a voice could be heard again after its speaker had finished.
A groove becomes a memory
Early phonographs used cylinders. Disc systems developed along a different path, with a stylus following a groove. The 1948 long-playing record became a landmark in home listening, giving listeners longer programmes on one disc.
A cassette in your pocket
Philips introduced the compact cassette in Berlin in 1963. Its enclosed tape made handling simpler, and the format became part of everyday recording and listening. Mixtapes, spoken letters and family recordings gave the medium a personal life beyond the music shop.
Sound becomes numbers
Digital recording represents an audio signal as numerical samples. Sony launched its CDP-101 compact-disc player in Japan in October 1982. A disc read by light became a new way to bring recorded music into the home.
What is worth keeping?
The ordinary recordings can matter most: a familiar laugh, a favourite story, the sound of a room you no longer visit. If you record someone, ask their permission and tell them how you plan to use the recording. Keep a backup, and add names and dates while you still remember them.