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...



Well, no piano roll for me or my immediate family, but to your list I will add the cylindrical disk - an early Victrola that plays what looks like a blue juice cup with the grooves along the outside. My folks still have one with a couple dozen songs.
We also used to use a reel-to-reel tape recorder when I was young, even before we got our first 8-tracks & cassettes.
On records, I'm sure you must have also had (as I do) the great compromise between 45s and LPs, the 10" EP!
Back to tape, when I worked college radio, we used reel-to-reels (again) to produce programs and cartridges that looked similar to 8-tracks but had very limited play times which we used to play (and automatically re-cue) commercials.
And even with those additions, I'm sure we'll each think of something else to add to the list later.
Posted by: Ken G | November 12, 2011 at 11:06 AM
Mr. RG! One of my friends had a reel-to-reel tape recorder, on which we recorded our street-corner singing group's efforts. It was then that I first had that shock of hearing my own voice as others did! Now, babies (and late-life video bloggers!) get that experience on iPhones.
Posted by: Tom Guarriello | November 14, 2011 at 07:22 AM
My dad had a reel to reel. Amazing machine, my sister and I used to pretend that it was our house computer back in the 70s. I had an 8 track with exactly one cartridge, Kiss' "Love Gun" - good times!
Posted by: Myles | January 22, 2012 at 09:02 PM
Yeah, Myles, I've heard lots of stories like this. Kiss is emblazened in lots of memory registers like yours!
Posted by: Tom Guarriello | January 22, 2012 at 09:20 PM