Music or audiobooks have always been a part of our lives. You can tell what mood we are in by the type of music we listen to or the excitement in our faces and emotion we give when entranced in an audiobook. Some people are perhaps wondering, how did we get to the point of being digital? If you have a simple personality, you may just want the short answer and this is technology advancement. However, if you have a more in-depth personality, I will gladly go into the specific aspects.

Accessibility

              When you think of accessibility, you may automatically come to the conclusion that you can pull up almost any song or audiobook on the internet and listen to it. While this is true, that wasn’t the case back then.

              In 1948, vinyl records became available. The number of songs Vinyl records played depended on the size. For example, a 45 could only play a single song on each side, but a 33 1/3 could play several on each side. If we wanted an album, we would need to go to a store, get the record, bring it back home and play it on our record players.      In the mid 1960’s, cassette tapes were invented Ultimately being easier to carry around than vinyl records. Compact cassettes came in 2 forms; pre-loaded content or fully recordable. I have several tapes, some with music or audiobooks on them, but if I want to play them, finding a tape player was extremely difficult. In the mid 1970’s, cassette decks were released into cars. This gave travelers opportunities to listen while on the road. In 1979, the Walkman was released by Sony making listening to cassettes more user friendly. People that didn’t have cars, college students and adults who wanted to enjoy nature or runners and walkers who needed a bit of fresh air could listen on the go. Sadly, in 2001, The cassettes lost their battle with CDs and faded away into obscurity.

              Although CDs came out in 1982, they did overlap with tapes a little bit. The advantage to having CDs come to the market was that there was more variety. I remember when I was younger and if I wanted a certain genre or audiobook, I would have to go with my parents to a physical store and buy the CD. I would then need to wait until I got home to put it in a compact disk player. The drawback to this was that if I only liked one song, to get that song, I would need to by the whole CD.

              In 2001, Apple released its first iPod and this has become the most popular music player. In 2003, the iTunes store was released revolutionizing how we listen to music and audiobooks. Searching, downloading music and audiobooks has never been easier. If you have something other than an iPhone, you could download your favorite music from the Google play store, released in 2012 or get apps like Kindle to download audiobooks. I remember how excited I was when I got my first iTunes gift cards. This was more accessible than tapes because you didn’t have to go to a physical store.

Durability

              Vinyl records, tapes and CDS all have one thing in common, they need proper care. How many times have you gone to play music on something, only to find it non workable? Several factors could play into this.

1. Temperature

              We all take care of our electronics and not purposefully leave them in extreme weather; hot or cold and it was no different with records, CDs and tapes. If you still have vinyl records and would like to store them somewhere, this is best done in a cool place. The same goes for CDs and tapes. If you accidently left a CD or tape in the hot sun for just a minute, it’s probably going to be alright. However, if you will be out of your car for a long time, leaving a CD or tape behind is not such a good idea. With CDs, the hot sun or humidity could potentially damage and warp the CD, making it unreadable by your player. This can have the same affect on tapes. If a tape is left in the car for a long time, the hot sun may melt the tape, thus being unrecognizable by the player

2. Scratching

              Have you ever wanted to listen to a vinyl record or CD but find that it will skip? You have to be careful with records as friction along with pressure from the needle makes the record Degrade over time. They can also scratch more easily with travel. CDs on the other hand, are less prone to scratching. The fact that a laser does the reading of the CD is great because this could extend the lifespan. Today, I don’t know how you can scratch your digital music. You do not have to remember several devices; you only have to worry about your phone.

3. Moisture

Moisture has an effect on vinyl records and CDS. If water gets on a record or CD, it could ruin your favorite soundtrack or audiobook. if you get a tape wet, I don’t believe it will work. Today, if you get your phone wet, you probably will not lose your music or audiobooks. If you have an iPhone, you can use iTunes or iCloud, but with an android device, you would just use Samsung Cloud.

              Technology has become so advanced nowadays. From physical music and audiobooks that first came on records, moved to tapes, graduated to CDs and now live in the digital age, I think this will become the new standard on how we listen to music and audiobooks. I have no idea where the next generation of technology will take us with music and audiobooks but wherever it goes, I hope we will be along for the ride!