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1878 The first music is put on a record. cornetist Jules Levy plays "Yankee Doodle."
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1904 Double-sided discs become available.
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In 1930, RCA Victor launched the first commercially-available vinyl long-playing record, marketed as "Program Transcription" discs. These revolutionary discs were designed for playback at 33⅓ rpm and pressed on a 12" diameter flexible plastic disc
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Beginning in 1939, Columbia Records continued development of this technology. Dr. Peter Goldmark and his staff undertook exhaustive efforts to address problems of recording and playing back narrow grooves and developing an inexpensive, reliable consumer playback system.
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After the introduction of high-quality but expensive stereo reel-to-reel tapes in 1955 and the increasing public fascination with stereo sound, intense work was undertaken to devise a scheme for recording stereo sound on 12" (30 cm) / 33⅓ rpm LP
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In late 1957, a system of cutting and playing back stereo was devised and generally accepted by the industry
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Consumer acceptance of stereo LPs was somewhat cautious initially but grew steadily during the early 1960s
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the industry largely discontinued production of conventional monaural LP records and playback equipment by 1968
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During the late 1970s, an audiophile-focused niche market for "direct-to-disc" records, which completely bypassed use of magnetic tape in favor of a "purist" transcription directly to the master lacquer disc
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According to recent Nielsen SoundScan numbers, vinyl was the fastest-growing musical format in 2010, with 2.8 million units sold, the format's best year since SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991
