How do you Usually Start your Day?
Well, many people can’t imagine waking up without a delicious cup of coffee. But for some people – it’s music. A playlist full of energetic and joyful music is an excellent way to start a productive day. People open streaming services and put on their favorite songs because dancing to them makes them happy.
But what they don’t realize is that there are quite many benefits to waking up to music daily, for instance, it improves brain function, boosts the immune system, and even helps your creativity!
You might even notice that you are more lively and ready to face every challenge that life throws at you.
In the modern world, music is so easily accessi*ble that it’s hard to imagine a period when it wasn’t, especially if you are young and don’t even remember a time when people had to go out to buy music in stores.
Read More: How You Can Benefit From Listening To Great Music
The truth is that the history of how, when, and where people listened to music is quite long and rich, and it starts when primitive instruments were created in the ancient world. How music progressed in ancient times is a lengthy and complicated topic, so let’s go back to the 19th century when Thomas Edison invented the phonograph. Although the device may be considered revolutionary, its quality of production was rather poor, and you couldn’t listen to the recording more than once.
What was next? – Gramophone and several versions of gramophones.
Fast forward to the mid of 20th century when vinyl records were introduced. Even if you don’t have the knowledge of music history, you have most definitely heard of vinyl. From today’s perspective, they’re considered vintage and some music enthusiasts even have collections of pieces of vinyl.
Vinyl records were quite innovative because they were made out of plastics and could be produced in large quantities. Another reason why they were so revolutionary is that they were the world’s first long-play records, which meant 21 minutes on each side. It enabled the music industry to become more album-focused as it still is today. In the 1970s vinyl dominated the music industry. That’s why even today when we hear the word vinyl, our mind involuntarily thinks of the ’70s era and music.
It all came to an end when the cassettes were introduced and gained popularity extremely fast. It shouldn’t come as a surprise because cassette tapes were more compact and made the recording, as well as listening to music easier and more comfortable.
The 1980s was the era of Compact Disks. While using cassettes you couldn’t skip to a specific song, CDs enabled music enthusiasts to do that. Of course, Compacts Disks or CDs are more of a thing of the past, but sometimes people buy them to this day, for instance, to install an antivirus on their computer. But it’s still rare in the era of digitalization.
Let’s not get too lost in the past and come back to the beginning of the 21st century that still was quite different from today but more familiar to us. In the early 2000s, Apple introduced its first iPod that could store up to 100 songs and allowed uploading songs digitally.
Over time iPod and other MP3 players became more and more compact with different features, such as pictures and videos. It not only changed the format of listening to music but with MP3 players people could listen to music whenever and wherever they wanted. If they were going grocery shopping, they could take their device and headphones, and enjoy fresh music while walking between different aisles looking for their favorite chocolate.
Of course, iPods and MP3 players still exist these days and are being updated with new features and tools every once in a while. But aren’t as popular as they used to be in their golden days. The majority of people nowadays use different devices, especially mobile phones to listen to music rather than an iPod.
And at the end of the first decade streaming stations were spreading widely and becoming more and more popular. While in the beginning, it was limited to one or two platforms, nowadays music fans can enjoy different genres of music on dozens of websites or applications.
Today streaming is one of the biggest revenue sources for the music industry. We can listen to music at any time of the day or night, anywhere we like! What is even more remarkable is that digital streaming platforms have opened doors full of career opportunities to many young musicians and artists. They have managed to turn their hobby or an interest into a career and make revenue.
Read More: A Simple Guide On How To Download Apple Music For Free
Of course, it’s still possible to gain popularity on platforms, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Soundcloud, and others but since there are already millions of artists and even more songs, competition is very fierce. To gain thousands of followers you have to work hard and upload new, high-quality content continuously. Certainly, there are some easier ways of gaining followers, such as service providers, like SocialWick, who offer effectively and quickly raising your exposure and ranking.
Let’s not forget that in the early days, radio was a primary source of music discovery and listening to music. People from all over the world who had access to the radio had the chance of hearing their favorite songs. Even though technological developments result in different methods of listening to music, the radio is still popular. Although now you don’t need to own a radio device because radio stations deliver online content, too.
When we think about the ways of listening to music, concerts also come to mind. Of course, concerts in the 17th century when they first became popular were quite different. Even though how, when, and where we listen to music has drastically changed, they remain quite popular because they offer two things no streaming service or radio can provide – experience and seeing your favorite artist or a band perform live.
The journey the music industry has been through is interesting and fascinating.
