It was in 1912 that the Phonograph Sales Company, created by Thomas Edison, successfully launched the Diamond Disc, the first popular talking machine, and in 1924 that engineers at Western Electric developed the first electric recordings that would replace the acoustic recordings of early phonographs.
Advancements in recording on rolls and wax discs, even before the invention of optical sound, marked a decisive step for recorded music. At the same time, the advancements and development of radio created a significant demand for music reproduced on 78 RPM records, the standard medium of the time after the decline of the roll. If we consider the problems faced by the pioneers of radio during live orchestra broadcasts, it becomes clear that it was much more practical, and especially less expensive, to use records.
For information on the evolution of recording techniques, see the comprehensive work by Greg Milner, “Perfecting Sound Forever – A History of Recorded Music.” Castor Astral 2014.
The first “recorded music library” was founded in the UK in 1927 by Meyer de Wolfe, who had started publishing sheet music for cinema as early as 1909.
This company, still owned by the de Wolfe family, remains active in the market.
Read more:The 1930s
