The evolution of music players has revolutionized how people consume music. The first example of a music player was Emily Berliner’s gramophone. Just invented in 1887 it was the first device ever which could play recorded music and made it accessible to the masses for the first time. However, it would take another nine years before the gramophone became commercially available on the market.
The next great leap forward was in 1905 when the 78-rpm standard was introduced. This insured that people could play their records correctly. After the invention of the radio, the next breakthrough was the audiocassette in 1963. The major benefit of a cassette over a gramophone was a small compact size making it easily movable. It also spun one of the most enjoyable and nostalgic facets of music, a mixed tape.
Sony released the Walkman in 1979 which meant that not only was music now a movable entity, but people were able to listen to it on a set of personal headphones. The 1983 compact disc was never as popular as the Walkman but it did produce a very good sound. The modern age has seen the dawn of the MP3 player in its many guises.
