Here we get word that record labels plan to abandon the CD by the end of 2012.
That got me thinking of all the music formats I've outlived (so far!):
- Piano rolls - while we didn't own any of these, I did have cousins (in the wilds of Lowell, Massachusetts) who did have a player piano that fascinated me, providing an oasis of respite during our otherwise torturous visits to their home in my youth.
- 78 RPM - These were a mainstay of my parents' music collection in the early 50s. I remember them as thick, heavy, scratchy and easily breakable.
- 45 RPM - Singles, with A and B sides, were one of the two mainstays of music during my youth. They were inexpensive and could be stacked up on spindles, forming the first playlists any of us ever created. Owned thousands of these, most of which were dispatched to the great unknown by my parents when they moved after I'd left for college. (We were that kind of family.)
- 33 1/3 RPM - These were the other preferred mid-20th century format. I've owned many hundreds of these and still have an embarrassingly large collection, despite no longer having a turntable on which to play them. Their covers, of course, are an art form in themselves.
- 8 Track - I never owned an 8 track tape or player, but I think my daughter had one that played Winnie-The-Pooh, or something similar.
- Cassette - This was huge. I had thousands of these, both pre-recorded and home made. Still do. Have I played one in the last decade? Hmm...
- CD - That brings us to the thousands of CDs that I now own, many of which are replicas of recordings I've owned in about four of the other formats listed above.
- MP3 - Well, I haven't outlived this one, yet, but I have a sneaky suspicion that it's not long for this world, given the pattern we see here.
How about you? How many of these formats do you remember? And, what's next?
Please, don't even get me started on cameras...
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