Music Technology Timeline

By splodge

  • The Phonautograph

    The Phonautograph
    The Phonautograph was first invented by Leon Scott in France in 1857.

  • The First Music Video

    The First Music Video
    The first music video would be "The Little Lost Child" using a "magic lantern" a series of still images projected on to a screen.

  • First Radio Broadcast

    First Radio Broadcast
    The first radio broadcast by presented by Reginald A.Fessenden and was transmitted from Brant Rock, Massachusetts to the general public.

  • First pair of Headphones

    First pair of Headphones
    Headphones were originated from the telephone receiver ear piece which was first invented by Nathaniel Baldwin.

  • First Analog Synth

    First Analog Synth
    The earliest Analog Synthesizers such as the Trautonium were built between the 1920's and 30's.

  • The First Magnetic Tape

    The First Magnetic Tape
    Magnetic Tape was first invented for recording sound by Fritz Pfleumer in Germany.

  • The First Electric Piano

    The First Electric Piano
    Among the earliest Electric pianos was the Neo-Bechstein in Humboldt University in Berlin.

  • Electric Bass Guitar

    Electric Bass Guitar
    The first known electric bass guitar was manufactured by Paul Tutmarc in Seattle.

  • First Hi-Fi System

    First Hi-Fi System
    While Hi-Fi LP's weren't publicly available until the 1950's, the technology to record high fidelity audio came much earlier. The first instance of Hi-fi recorded audio by RCA Victor and the Philadelphia Orchestra.

  • First Electric guitar

    First Electric guitar
    The first prototype electric guitar was was developed by Les Paul. However, they were first mass produced in 1948 as the fender Esquire/Broadcaster

  • First Effect Unit

    First Effect Unit
    DeArmond released the Trem-Trol, the first commercially available stand-alone effects unit.

  • Fender Stratocaster

    Fender Stratocaster
    The discovery of the Fender Stratocaster was a big change and was groundbreaking and brought a new sound to Rock n Roll. The Fender Stratocaster was invented by Leo Fender.

  • First tape cassette

    First tape cassette
    The tape cassette was invented by the Philips corporation in Hasselt, Belgium

  • Mellotron

    The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, EnglanD.

  • Fender Rhodes

    Fender Rhodes
    The Fender Rhodes was was a small portable keyboard consisting of 32 keys, The Door's keyboardist Ray Manzarek was one of the most prominent musicians to use it.

  • PolyMoog

    PolyMoog
    The polymoog was a polyphonic analog synthesizer and was made by Robert Moog, the polymoog had 71 keys.

  • Tascam Portastudio

    Tascam Portastudio
    The Tascam Portastudio was the first four-track recorder based on a standard cassette tape and was discovered by the Company Tascam .

  • Synclavier

    Synclavier
    Manufactured by New England Digital Corporation and was revolutionary to the Electronic Music Scene.

  • Roland MC-8 Microcomposer

    Developed by Roland, the MC-8 Microcomposer was a pioneer in Sequencing technology and was used by mainly popular musicians such as Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk.

  • Roland CR-78

    Roland CR-78
    Created by Roland and was revolutionary at the time as it was the first of it's kind to allow the programming and storage of custom drum patterns.

  • Fairlight CMI

    Fairlight CMI
    Developed by Fairlight, the CMI was a build your own synthesizer and was one of the first Digital Audio Workstations to offer sampling capabilities, being rather pricey ranging up to £30.000.

  • The first use of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)

    The first use of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
    The first MIDI synthesizers were the Roland Jupiter 6 and also the Prophet 600.

  • The creation of Pro Tools (Sound Designer).

    The creation of Pro Tools (Sound Designer).
    The first incarnation was introduced under the brand named Sound Designer. Developed by Evan Brooks and Peter Gotcher.

  • The first portable CD player.

    The first portable CD player.
    Sony was the first to create a portable CD player called the Discman.

  • First Analog Mixing Desk

    First Analog Mixing Desk
    The first known Analog mixing desk was invented in 1987.

  • First ADAT (Alesis Digital Audio Tape)

    First ADAT (Alesis Digital Audio Tape)
    The product was first announce in January 1991 at the NAMM convention

  • The Logic DAW is released

    The Logic DAW is released
    First created by Emagic in 1993, later being sold to Apple in 2002.

  • Digital mixing consoles first use

    Digital mixing consoles first use
    Digital mixing consoles were first used in 1993

  • First use of MP3

    First use of MP3
    The first use of MP3 was released in 1993 was called a "MP Man"

  • Limewire Release date.

    Limewire Release date.
    Developed by Mark Howard Gorton in 2000 and then was discontinued in 2010.

  • Youtube

    Youtube
    Developed in California by three former paypal employers. Later being brought by Google in 2006 for $1.65Billion.

  • Spotify

    Spotify
    First released in Stockholm,Sweden by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon.

  • Apple Music

    Apple Music
    The service was announced on June 8th 2015 and was then released in over 100 countries across the world.