down with RIAA
Original blog post containing the above image posted at: I’m a Human Inbox

I thought the above cartoon was appropriate in relation to the current news..

Music Media

Over the years, I’ve owned several types of media that music has been stored on:

  • 78s
  • 45s
  • LPs
  • 8-Track
  • Reel-to-Reel
  • Cassette
  • Compact Disc
  • MiniDisc
  • DAT
  • MP3/AAC/digital

8 track
Yes, I actually did own the above 8-Track portable player
photo used found on the following post on Current TV

CDs have been one of the formats I’ve used the longest, followed closely by the LP and then the cassette. 8-Track albums by Elton John, The Eagles, Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix were played quite often in the car and on my portable.

Minidisc

minidisc
A favorite format of mine for a good 10 years.

Minidisc was one of my favorites to store and listen to music on. Smaller than CDs, it stored about an albums’ worth of music. My use of it was for not just music. I would record radio shows, voice conversations, interviews and concert bootlegs. I still have an MD recorder that I get out a few times a year. I’d like to update it, but there’s no pressing need to, other than for my own personal love of this format.

45s and 78s

Hey Jude 45 single
Original photo found at Honolulu Star Advertiser

My collection of 45s and 78s are long gone, but the memories will always be there. As a child, my mom bought Disney records on 78 that I loved to listen to. Then as my musical tastes expanded, I bought 45s, or singles as we all knew them as. At one point, I had amassed a collection of over two-thousand 45s – much more than the few hundred LPs I owned and listened to.

Portable Players

sony walkman
Original photo found at Honolulu Star Advertiser

As media changed over the years, so did my ways of listening to music. Portable cassette boom boxes were very popular outside and in my bedroom. My first CD boom box was equally used a lot. Then came the Walkman, which forever changed how we listen to music, including present day. I’ve owned quite a few Walkmens over the years, as it was a solid media player that kept the tunes going on minimal battery life.

I miss some formats like LPs, playing them a lot on a wide array of different types of turntables, recording each album to cassette for portable listening. Since 1998, I came into the world of MP3 and have increased my usage of it. Today, it’s a mixed format of CD and MP3/AAC/digital with the ratio being 15/85, respectfully.

So what formats have you owned over the years? Have you gone complete digital? A mix of old and new? Any obscure formats that defined a period of time in your life as awesome? Comment away.