Recording and distribution in the 20th century has evolved from tangible formats to forms that are digitally stored, either on our computers or in the server cloud. The distribution race has gone from who has the best product to who has the best service. In every generation there are format winners and format losers, below is a brief list of how this music industry has changed since the beginning of the 20th century.
- 1895 – The first Commercial disk. Wax cylinders are also in use as a recording media.
- 1924 – The first electrical recording equipment used to record sound. Previous recordings were made by standing close to an acoustic horn.
- 1935 – The first commercial release of the reel to reel tape recorder.
- 1945 – FM radio becomes gradually more popular in the post-war period as the number of radio transmitters increases.
- 1948 – Columbia Records introduce the 33 1/3 rpm long player (LP) record.
- 1949 – RCA Victor introduce the 45 rpm record.
- 1954 – The introduction of the transistor radio. Previous radios were large and cumbersome because the used vacuum tubes, but the use of transistors made the technology more portable.
- 1956 – Les Paul uses the first 8-track tape recorder to create multi-track recordings (Although 4-track tape recorders were still in common use through the 1960s).
- 1958 – The first stereo LP’s are made available to the general public.
- 1962 – Philips introduce the compact cassette (mass production begins in 1964).
- 1968 – The first 16-track tape recorder is introduced.
- 1979 – Sony introduces the Walkman portable cassette player.
- 1979 – The first album captured using a digital recorder is released.
- 1982 – Sony and Philips introduce the CD player.
- 1988 – CD sales exceed LP sales for the first time.
- 1992 – The Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standardize the compression format to become known as MP3.
- 2001 – Apple release the iPod.
- 2003 – Legal digital downloads became widely available with the debut of the iTunes store.
- 2009 – The popularity of internet music distribution has increased with more than a quarter of all recorded music revenues worldwide are now coming from digital channels.