In the beginning there was Thomas Edison's phonograph with the cylindrical records that, although amazing for their time, sounded awful. There was no electronic amplification and the player had to cranked by hand to produce sound. But it was recorded music (or speech). Next came the record disk in 78 and 45 and 33 rpm (revolutions per minute) speeds. The quality of the sound steadily improved over the years as the stylus (or cartridge) changed from crystal to ceramic to magnetic. More improvement came with the changes in stylus from metal (yes metal!) to sapphire to diamond.Other changes to the recording industry included improvements to the stereo systmes used to play and amplify the music. Monorail gave way to stereo and 4 channel systems.

The mediums for recorded music have changed over the years as well. Cassette tapes were introduced that could not only be played but recorded to as well. Albums could then be copied from friends for free but the quality suffered through the recording process. 8-track casette tapes were also available but never really caught on and recording on them even less so.Around 1982 compact discs were introduced to consumers to replace the vinyl record. For a very ling time CD's and records were sold side-by-side in the record stores with the records slowly disappearing from the shelves. Since records needed time to "recover" between sessions you could only listen to a song so many times per day. Also records were prone to scratching. Some record companies responded by putting out limited pressing record that were more expensive and produced better quality sound.

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