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Around the beginning of the 1980s, companies Philips Electronics NV and Sony worked together on the invention of the Compact Disc or CD. A CD is a plastic circle with very tiny grooves made to store data which can then be picked up by a laser and reproduced into sound. The advent of the CD undermined the Vinyl and eventually replaced it. In the market side of things, the creation of the CD meant higher quality music and the inventions of the CD-ROM and DVD. ("compact disc.")
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The Sony Walkman was a cassette player that came along with headphones. The first Sony Walkman was released in 1979, but throughout the 80s 90s it made its mark. The first one had playback, but it would not record. The boom of the Walkman led to it being seen as a fashion statement, but that wasn't its only impact. To many, someone wearing a Walkman was interpreted as wanting to be left undisturbed. On the company side, the popularity and the price of $700 today means profit. (Thompson)
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Apple's iPod is a small, rectangle mp3 player boasting a library of 1000 songs made to fit in your pocket. It's popularization exploded the mp3 market and shifted away the use of cassettes and CDs. The iPod also had several later editions introduced the the market.(Griffith) Not only that, but if you look at any other mp3 players in the market, i.e. Coby, if they don't look like an oval with a USB, they look like an iPod.
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Spotify is a service that allows access a plethora of songs along with uploading songs legally and for free rather than pirated. Spotify was also made to take the place of Napster. The company Spotify was founded in 2006, but it was launched in 2008, but its peak of use was in the 2010s. Spotify is one of, if not the most, popular way of listening to podcasts and songs from your device with it being what similar apps will look like. In marketing, Spotify has raked in users and money.("Spotify.")
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Phones today are the new thing for listening to music. The phones used most are iPhones, created by the same people who made the iPod. In 2010, about 33% of U.S. phone users used their phone to listen to music.(Smith) In society, it's not uncommon to see someone walking with earbuds in their ears and/or a phone in their hand. Which makes sense considering 91% of people in the U.S. own a cellphone.(Pew Research Center) In the market, this has led to more things catered to phones, music and apps.
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Griffith, Eric. “A Visual History of the Apple iPod.” PCMag, 10 May 2022, https://www.pcmag.com/news/a-visual-history-of-apple-ipods. Accessed 16 August 2025.
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"compact disc." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 20 Mar. 2023. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/compact-disc/25003. Accessed 17 Aug. 2025.
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"Spotify." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 29 Feb. 2024. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/Spotify/641662. Accessed 17 Aug. 2025.
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Thompson, Clive. “The Walkman’s Invention 40 Years Ago Launched a Cultural Revolution.” Smithsonian Magazine, Smithsonian, July 2019, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/walkman-invention-40-years-ago-launched-cultural-revolution-180972552/. Accessed 16 8 2025.
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Smith, Aaron. “Mobile Access 2010.” Pew Research Center, 7 July 2010, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2010/07/07/mobile-access-2010/. Accessed 17 8 2025.
Pew Research Center. “Demographics of Mobile Device Ownership and Adoption in the United States.” Pew Research Center, 13 November 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/. Accessed 17 August 2025.