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Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line -- providing coast-to-coast communications during the U.S. Civil War.
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Edison invents the cylinder "phonograph" used to record and playback sound.
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Emile Berliner invents the first microphone and sells the rights to Bell Telephone.
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Emile Berliner invents the flat record player ("gramophone") using acoustic horn and licenses technology to record companies who make "70-rpm" disks.
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Louis Glass invents the modern jukebox (coin-operated phonograph) and installs it at the "Palais Royal" saloon in San Francisco where it is an immediate hit.
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An orchestra is used with (silent) motion pictures for the first time in April in London
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Guglielmo Marconi is granted his first British patent for wireless telegraphy.
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Vitaphone introduces a sound system to synchronize music and sound effects with a motion picture; It uses a 16-inch disc turntable that is connected to the projector. Operators have to continuously adjust the synchronization of the grooves to the picture,
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Bell Laboratories develops a 33 1/3 rpm disk system to synchronize a music track for the Warner Brothers film "Don Juan" containing music composed by William Axt. This system is similar to the Vitaphone system.
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RCA convinces phonograph labels including its own Victor label as well as Columbia and other manufacturers to standardize on 78.26 rpm as the speed of all phonograph records.
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The Edison Co. ceases the manufacturing of sound recordings.
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An experimental "binaural" phonograph system is created by Bell laboratories.
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The Duke Ellington recording of "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" starts the "swing music" dance craze.
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AEG/Telefunken exhibits the first magnetic tape recorder in Germany.
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Billboard magazine publishes its first chart of top-selling records.
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Regular FM Radio broadcasting begins in New York City.
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James Petrillo's American Federation of Musicians (AF of M) Union begins a "recording ban" from Aug., 1942 - Nov., 1944 to force record companies to pay royalties, which starts the decline of the big-band era in favor of vocal groups and "crooner" vocalis
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EMT releases plate reverb this is an electro mechanical device. this is like a loud speacker but with out the paper cone.
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Stero tape recordings first appear.
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Mellotron is the first keyboard to actually you the sound of the actual instrument.
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Phillips release the first compact cassette tape.
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Robert Moog shows elements of his first synthesizers.
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Lexicon introduces the first digital delay line. this gives the echo effects in songs.
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CPU is invented. Until now, all electronic equipment has used discrete components to do particular jobs.
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A four-channel noise reduction system for optical sound tracks on 35mm film is introduced by Dolby labs.
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The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", is the first hip-hop record to reach Top 40 radio.
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The digital Compact Disc (CD) is introduced by a Japanese conglomerate.
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NBC broadcasts the first television programs with stereo sound.
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The Moving Picture Experts Group MPEG-1 Audio Layer III (MP3) compressed audio file format becomes an international standard, and eventually the most popular format for distributing digital audio over the Internet.
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The "SoundScan" barcode tracking system of reporting music recording sales begins to bring accurate sales figures to record charts; Country music is now a bigger segment.
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The DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) increases capacity of digital storage of audio and video on a CD (Compact Disc) medium; can store on to 4.7 GigaBytes per side; double-sided disks are possible though rare...
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Recordable CD-R digital audio disc technology becomes part of personal computer systems.
