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While Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville (catch your breath after that one!) was recording sound on his sound transcription device some 20 years earlier, It was Thomas Edison who invented a way to playback music. His phonograph was ground breaking and the begining of the music revolution
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Emile Berliner invents the Gramophone. The first record player had to be turned by hand, records would go on to be the dominant form of playing music right up to the 1990s
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Though early gramophones played at many different speeds, by 1925 the 78 rpm record had been established as the standard speed of playback.
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Columbia Records launches the 33 rpm record. The LP can play over 20 minutes of music on each side it leaves the 78's which play less then 5 minutes per side in the dust.
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RCA Victor introduces the 45 to compete with the new 33 rpm records. the 7 inch records were primarily singles holding a song or two on each side. 45s were used in jukeboxes.
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In 1964 the 8 Track was first introduced in cars. Behind the development was a joint consortium led by Bill Lear along with Ampex, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Motorola, and RCA Victor Records (RCA) they refined the existing magnetic tape sound repoduction technology. 8 Tracks were big but fell out of fashon in the late 70s.
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In 1970, the Advent Corporation create the Advent Model 200, the first hi fi cassette deck. The small modern cassette tape had a superior sound compared to the bulk 8 track and helped lead to their demise.
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While the first Boom Box was released in the Netherlands in 1969, it wasn't until the mid 70s when Sony had improved the features and sound quality that Boom Boxes really took off. Synonomous with street partys and Hip Hop culture the Boom Box held sway on the streets into the early 90s.
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Invented by Sony engineer Nobutoshi Kihara for Sony co-chairman Masaru Ibuka so he could list to music on long flights, The launch of the Sony Walkman in 1979 (Japan) and 1980 (intrernationally) revolutionised the way music could be consumed. The precurser to the ipod.
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Sony and Philips had been in competition developing the first commercial CD . They joined forces and in 1982 the collaborative standadized their format and release the CD onto the market.
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Just five years after the launch of the Walkman and two since the arrival of the CD, Sony launches the D- 50 Discman. Discmans remained the portable music plauyer of choice right up til the early noughties.
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Saehan Information Systems MPMan player hit the market in 1998. With a choice of 32MB or a whopping 64MB capacity the future of portable music had arrived.
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It took them 13 years since portable MP3 players were avaliable but when Apple released the iPod in 2001 it took the world by storm. With 5GB of memory and sleek design, smaller then most players on the market the iPod became the new standard bearer of cool. More than a music player the iPod was a must have fashion accessory. The original iPods decendents continue to be popular today.
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The BlackBerry phone is an alrounder. Encompassing traditional phone functions with the added ability to send emails, surf the web and of course play MP3 music. Initially popular the BlackBerry would soon be surpased by iPhones and Android phones but will always be able to claim being the first phone/music player combination.
