The Story of Music 

Music can only be enjoyed live. People go to concerts and sing at home as entertainment.

Thomas Edison makes the first machine that can record and play back music. It’s called the phonograph. (The first song he records is “Mary Had a Little Lamb”!)

The long-playing (LP) record disc comes out. It can play about 60 minutes of music. The records are made of vinyl and played on a turntable. LPs are popular through the 1970s.

Cassette tapes take off. They play songs in one order. To listen to a specific song, you must fast-forward or rewind until you find it. And in 1979, the Sony Walkman is released. It allows people to listen to cassettes on the go!

By 1980, 99 percent of American households have a radio. Radio DJs play music, and people listen at home and in their cars. Want to hear a specific song? Call the DJ at your local radio station and request it.

Compact discs, or CDs, explode on the scene. Just be careful! If a CD gets scratched, the music skips.

Napster lets people share their music for free over the internet. But it is shut down two years later. Sharing music files is ruled to be illegal.

Apple releases the iPod. It plays digital sound files and fits in your pocket. It can store 1,000 songs! 

Spotify, a music streaming service, is launched in Sweden. At the end of 2024, it had more than 600 million users.