The following timeline shows which music player is invented when and by whom:

• 1877: American inventor Thomas Edison records his voice on a tinfoil cylinder phonograph.
• 1885: The wax-coated cylinder is introduced as an improvement on Edison's first design.
• 1887: German-born American Emile Berliner invents the Gramophone, which stores sounds as grooves in the wax surface of a flat disc.
• 1900: Danish inventor Valdemar Paulsen unveils a magnetic recording device, called the Telegraphone.
• 1928: Tape with a magnetic coating is developed in Germany. Further refinements and a 1930s tape recorder called the Magnetophone make reel-to-reel recording popular.
• 1948: Columbia introduces the first 12-inch vinyl records. Relatively cheap to make, these allow for a longer playing time.
• 1962: Philips, based in the Netherlands, demonstrates its first compact audio cassette. It is sold the following year with dictation machines. A stereo version is introduced in 1967.
• 1982: The first digital audio compact discs (CDs) are sold in Japan.
• 1998: MP3 technology becomes popular. This format allows music to be compressed, stored, and transferred digitally over computer networks.

The following images of music player are shown with some highlights:

• Phonograph
  • Metal cylinder: This is wrapped with a layer of tinfoil.
  • Mouthpiece: The mouthpiece records sounds as scratches on the tinfoil.
  • Hand trunk
• Gramophone
  • Funnel: The funnel is used for recording and playback.
  • Horn: The horn channels sounds from an iron diaphragm.
  • Steel needle
• Reel-to-Reel Recorder
  • As wire recording gives way to magnetic tape, portable reel-to-reel recorders, like this 1950s model, become very popular.
• Vinyl long playing
• Cassette Tape Recorder
  • Audio cassettes, a compact version of reel-to-reel magnetic tapes, are soon in demand.
• MP3 Player