A Brief History of Music Technology

The history of music recording technology began with the development of the phonograph in the 1890s and goes through to modern digital audio recording. The history of music recording also includes other innovations such as magnetic tape, reel-to-reel tape recorders, digital audio workstations (DAWs), and streaming music services such as Spotify and Pandora. Our articles provide an overview of this history, technologies, and events that led to today’s digital recording world.