Recording technology has changed and grown up since the first recording device, as the following history shows:

1877 - Edison made the first recording of a human voice on the first tinfoil cylinder ("Mary had a little lamb")

1888 - Emile Berliner made the first gramophone using a flat 7-inch disk

1901 - The 78-rpm record speed is standardized by Victor for its spring motor phonograph in 1901.

1919 - The 33-1/3 speed is created for the electrical recording at Bell Labs

1931 - Pfleumer and AEG begin to construct the first magnetic tape recorders.

1939 - Wire recorder invented in US

1944 - 3M Co. (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) began tape-coating experiments in U.S. under Ralph J. Oace.

1949 - The 45-rpm speed is created by RCA Victor for the 7-inch microgroove record in 1949.

1965 - Philips introduced the compact cassette for consumer audio recording and playback on small portable machines such as the Norelco Carry-Corder 150.

1982 – Beginning of the digital revolution with the first digital audio 5-inch CD discs.

1985 - Sony and Philips produce standard for CD Read Only Memory (CD-ROM)

1987 - Digital Audio Tape (DAT) players introduced

1995 - All companies in the DVD consortium agreed to DVD standards.

1997 - MP3.com is founded in November by Michael Robertson.

1999 – Napster peer-to-peer file sharing software, launched

2001 – Napster has to stop.