Music and Arts Librarian
Quick Guide to Formats
Basic Timeline
| 1877 | Edison cylinder, primary recording format through beginning of 20th century |
| 1889 | gramophone record introduced, in various sizes and playback speeds |
| c.1910 | 78 rpm 10-inch shellac disc becomes dominant consumer format |
| c.1924 | Western Electric commercializes electronic recording |
| 1935 | AEG develops first practical magnetic tape recorder |
| 1948 | Columbia Records introduces the vinyl "LP" - still the standard format for analog discs |
| 1954 | EMI releases first stereophonic tapes (on reels) |
| 1963 | Phillips introduces the standard compact cassette |
| 1979 | Sony releases Walkman, creating the portable music market |
| 1982 | Sony and Phillips jointly develop the Compact Disc |
| 1994 | CD-R "burners" available in consumer market |
| 1995 | MP3 format released, allowing for compression of digital audio into small files |
| 2001 | Apple releases first iPod |
| 2008 | Launch of Spotify |
Analog Discs
Discs were made in various size and speed combinations, but these are the most common:
- 10" 78 rpm shellac, 6-8 minutes
- 7" 45 rpm vinyl, 8-10 minutes (Single)
- 7" 33⅓ rpm vinyl, 14-16 minutes (EP)
- 12" 33⅓ rpm vinyl, 40-45 minutes (LP)
Digital Discs
- 4.75" disc, 74-80 minutes (CD)
- with high-resolution and multi-channel sound (SACD, DVD-A)
- with ultra high-resolution and multi-channel sound (Blu-ray Audio)
- 3" cartridge, 74-80 minutes (Mini-Disc)
Magnetic Tape
- 4x2.5" cartridge, 1/8" tape, 60-90 minutes ("cassette")
- Open reels have many different configurations...
Discography
Online Databases
- Discogs
Discogs is a crowd-sourced site with good moderation and excellent metadata capability. Concept of "master release" is very good at grouping reissues on different formats. With content driven by users, however, the amount of detail varies greatly, and usually limited to what is physically found on the item.
- Music Brainz
Open-access database of music information, growing steadily, and integrating RDF concepts, utilizing Linked Data, and offering easy integration into other applications.
Their Picard software is amazing at identifying digital audio and tagging it, if the release is in their database... Tons of potential, but still growing. - AllMusic
All Music Guide migrated online more successfully than any other print publication. Great for all sorts of information and quickly seeing releases and credits. For newer releases, will often have more complete and well-organized data than any other site.
Vendors
- ArkivMusic
Fantastic vendor for classical recordings, with easy to use browse interface, compilation of reviews from multiple sources, and data on recordings. Licenses out-of-print items and rereleases them. Not comprehensive by any means, but a great place to start.
- PrestoClassical
Another very good vendor with detailed information on releases and excellent metadata control. Also offers audio samples and Hi-Res downloads.