What songs were running through your head earlier today? Are they the same tunes you sang as a young child? Do you think they are similar to the songs your parents enjoy? Your favorite music is probably very different from the music your parents listened to at your age, and your musical tastes have probably changed quite a bit since you were very young. Popular music is always changing as new art…
• 1877 - Thomas Edison invents the phonograph. The machine has two needles, one for recording and one for playback. Recordings are made on a tin foil cylinder. • 1887 - Emile Berliner invents the gramophone. Recordings are made on flat discs or albums. The first record albums are made of glass. • 1896 - Radio is invented. • 1906 - The first radio broadcast of…
How is it possible to fit thousands of songs on an MP3 player? It started in the 1970s, when a German research team began working on a way to compress songs to about one-tenth of their size. The German company, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, developed the technology to digitize sounds. When sounds are made digital, a computer stores each one as a number. Some of the sounds, though, are outside the rang…
The first MP3 player, the MPMan, was produced in 1998. It held 32 megabytes (MB) of memory. One megabyte played about one minute of music, so this player couldn't hold many more than eight or nine songs. The unit sold for $250.00, but, for an additional $69.00, you could upgrade your memory to 64 megabytes! The Diamond Rio, released a couple of months after the MPMan, was als…
Deciding to buy an MP3 player is easy. Figuring out which one you want can be a little more difficult. There are different types of MP3 players. They are grouped by how they store their media. Flash memory players are smaller and lighter than hard drive players. Will you be using the player when you run? You'll want one with a flash memory instead of a hard drive. You can use the flas…
Most of us think of music when we think of MP3 players. We can visit an online music store to purchase new songs and albums. Even better, we get to hear some of each song before we buy, so there's less chance of spending money on music we don't really like. Online music stores sell individual songs and complete albums. You can search for a specific band or singer, or you can s…
MP3 players are not just about digital data any more. Many MP3 players come equipped with added features, including FM radio tuners, built-in microphones for recording, and adapters that allow your MP3 music to play on your car stereo. Additionally, other types of electronic devices are building MP3 capabilities into their units. Besides the iPhone, many other cell phones now have built-in MP3 pl…
Your MP3 player is made for portability. It is small and lightweight. Sometimes, though, you want to share music with friends, or listen without wearing the earbuds that came with your player. Many fun and useful accessories are sold to help you enjoy your music to the fullest. Some headphones are made to cover your ears. You can purchase additional earbuds to match the color of your p…
albums (AL-buhms): collections of music on long-playing records bit (BIT): a basic unit of information storage, or memory cartridge (KAR-trij): a small protective case cassette (kuh-SET): a small, hard plastic case which contains an inner magnetic tape used for recording and playing sound and music compact disks (kuhm-PAKT disks): also called CDs, they are plastic disks used for recording and pla…