The Old Phono Blog
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- Written by: Merrill Fabry
The question of which sound was the first ever to be recorded seems to have a pretty straightforward answer. It was captured in Paris by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville in the late 1850s, nearly two decades before Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone call (1876) or Thomas Edison’s phonograph (1877). But it turns out that, while the answer is clear, the question is complicated.
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- Written by: Verity Sharp with Andy Votel
BBC Radio 3 Late Junction’s Verity Sharp and the co-founder of Finders Keepers Records, Andy Votel, disappeared into the BBC Archives in search of obscure vinyl recordings and rare oddities. They found a surprising, tiny delight…
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- Written by: The Associated Press
When college student and roots music fan Lance Ledbetter grew frustrated at the near impossibility of buying 78 rpm gospel records from the 1920s and '30s, he began to ponder a question: What would it take to reissue those old tunes and put them in stores?
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- Written by: Allison Meier
Among the wax cylinders in UC Berkeley’s Hearst Museum of Anthropology are songs and spoken-word recordings in 78 indigenous languages of California.
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- Written by: Corey Kilgannon
Nora Bayes was one of the most famous entertainers of the early 20th century, and after her death from cancer in 1928 at age 48, fans flocked to her Manhattan townhouse as she was carried out in a silver coffin.
- Kostas Bezos, unsung hero of 1930s Greek music gets cult following
- Thomas Edison's Forgotten Sci-Fi Novel
- Twain and Edison, on the record
- A remarkable temple of sound tucked away in a place called Pala
- Names of Talking Machines
- New Documentary Blends Civil Rights Murders With Hunt for Blues Icons
- Cornell University Celebrates the Voyager Golden Record this week
- Talking Machine Tried As Disturber
- A Phonograph Fiasco
- 5 Amazing Record Archives Where You Can Listen For Free
- Done By The Phonograph: Unique Uses To Which Talking Machines Are Put
- The First Jazz Recording Turns 100
- A Phonograph School For Parrots
- Victrola trademark bought by Long Island Company
- Sounds from Shanghai
- Bix Beiderbecke Museum and Archive Opens
- Thomas Edison and the Eclipse of 1878
- Free Discography Downloads
- Edison invented recordings – but it was the phonography studios of Spain that popularised them
- Forget the vinyl comeback. See a house stuffed with antique phonographs.
- Restoring a vintage 1920s recording system for 'American Epic'
- 30,000 78rpm Records Are Now In a Digital Archive