The Stone Age
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Edison_and_phonograph_edit1.jpg
Think back to a time when there were no cell phones, iPods, personal computers, or MTV. A time when records, cassettes, and cds were the primary medium for listening to music. It was a much slower and arduous process to get one’s music “out there”. As with many modes of entertainment nowadays, it is possible for almost anybody to get their work out there. With Pandora, Soundcloud, Spotify, mega pop stars as well as aspiring musicians can distribute their music easily and instantly. But, let’s revisit that ancient time for just a moment, and attempt to trace the origins of music sharing.
Thomas Edison, famous for helping create the incandescent light bulb, invented the phonograph (also known as a turntable) in 1877. There were other devices at this time that could record sounds, but the phonograph was the first to have the capability of reproducing the recorded sound. This marked the beginning of music becoming commonplace in the home, because before the phonograph people only listened to music in church or at social events. While this was a huge breakthrough, the phonograph could only playback songs once, and the quality was extremely poor. Fortunately, the gramophone was invented a decade after the phonograph, by Emile Berliner. Instead of using cylinders, Berliner utilized flat discs (records), made out of metal. Hand-cranking the gramophone, the listener could power the arm of the gramophone to run the needle (another innovation). After 1900, records could be mass produced, marking the beginning of a growing industry. Though, as many other technological innovations, there were problems and slow progress at first, music sharing was growing and becoming more popular in society and culture. How would this growing industry become more commercial? 
