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Publisher’s Corner

Collecting Music journalofantiques.com

Publisher
he ways we listen to music are always changing, were no longer being produced in Maxine Carter-Lome
but the people who feel the need to amass as much this country, leaving behind a half- journalofantiques@gmail.com
Tof it as possible never go away. Yet, with so many century of recorded, collectible
of these forms now online and digital-based, what’s music in this format. Maxine Carter-Lome Business Manager
physically left to collect? Ten months after Columbia Record Company Jeffrey Lome
Nothing has changed more in the last century than introduced the 33 1/3 rpm record, RCA Victor released jeffrey@journalofantiques.com
recorded sound and the ways in which it is delivered to the new 45 rpm record in 1949. These 7-inch discs could Managing Editor
the listener’s ear. Like so many of the “discontinuous” hold about 4-5 minutes of recording on each side, perfect Judy Gonyeau
inventions (inventions that make possible dramatic for a single song like the 78, but recorded at a much editorial@journalofantiques.com
changes) we explore in this magazine for the collectibles higher quality and more affordable than higher-priced Contributing Writer
they bring about, Thomas Edison is at the root of this 33 1/3 LPs. They were also the perfect play for the Erica P. Lome, Ph.D.
story, as well. jukeboxes turning up in restaurants, bars, and social clubs
Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. across the country, and the new record players finding Art Director
His work on a telephone transmitter and the keyboard their way into American homes. Over the next 30 years, Lynn Cotterman
telephone inspired him to make sketches for a device that consumers and collectors had much to choose from ads@journalofantiques.com
would both record and playback sound impulses between 33 1/3s and 45s but records took up a lot of Production
engraved onto tinfoil. Some months later, John Kruesi, space and were vulnerable from use and the elements over Jill Montague
an Edison-employed machinist, built the first tinfoil time. Enter the compact disc (CD) in 1982. Judy Gonyeau

phonograph, based on Edison’s sketches. A verse of CDs were a game-changer for all but hard-core vinyl
“Mary had a little lamb” is reportedly the first collectors. Many music buyers, myself included, were 508-347-1960
phonograph recording to be made and played back. happy to sell off their warped, scratched albums at tag Toll free:
Always quick to move on to his next invention, sales and rebuild their music collection with these smaller- 888-698-0734
Edison sold his manufacturing and sales rights to the size, more durable, and better-quality recordings. When
phonograph to the Edison Speaking Phonograph portable and in-dash CD players came on the market, the Fax: 508-347-0911
Company in early 1878 to turn his attention to the CD even muscled out 8-tracks and cassette tapes, leaving Mailing:
electric light bulb. Edison returned to the technology in in its wake even more formats for music lovers to collect. P. O. Box 950
late 1886 when new innovations for playing recorded Technological evolution is on display in most object- Sturbridge, MA 01566

music threatened to make his technology obsolete just as based collections but what happens when the object info@journalofantiques.com
the market was heating up. evolves beyond a physical form? That’s already happened
In 1886, the Volta Graphophone Co. was granted a in the music industry, where today more music is UPS and FedEx
patent for a device it named the ‘graphophone’ used to purchased online as a digital file than albums and CDs Shipping Address:
46 Hall Road
play a wax-coated cardboard cylinder. Edison responded purchased at a brick and mortar or online store to be Sturbridge, MA 01566
the following year with his “Improved Phonograph” played on a stereo or CD player. New music is still being
based on a solid wax, rather than a wax-coated, cylinder. made and consumed at record-breaking levels but the Journal of
The refinement and subsequent manufacturing of devices delivery devices, distribution, recording formats, and Antiques and Collectibles
to deliver music continued down the cylinder path packaging for that music are not the same market drivers is published monthly in digital
unchallenged until German inventor Emile Berliner for collectors in the digital age of the 21st century as and quarterly in print by
received a U.S. patent in 1886 for a machine to record they were in the 20th century when vinyl in all its speeds Weathervane Enterprises, Inc.
sound by tracing a lateral—as opposed to the phono- was king. 46 Hall Road
graph’s vertical—groove of even depth onto a cylindrical So, I have to wonder what collecting music in the Sturbridge MA 01566.
drum. Shortly thereafter, Berliner replaced the cylinder digital age will look like without the physical representa- Periodicals postage paid at
with a flat disc, and recorded music started down an tions that have traditionally accompanied the consumer Sturbridge MA.
alternative path. sale of music and have defined the collector experience
For nearly twenty years, competition existed between for over a century. Is a downloadable digital file of
the flat record and the cylinder, the disc leading by a licensed music as collectible as the music you buy
narrow edge. Some companies such as Edison and wrapped in an album cover that is as defining as the POSTMASTER:
Columbia issued recordings on both formats. Today, music itself? I am interested in reading your thoughts. Send address changes to
both of these formats—cylinder and flat record—and the Email: journalofantiques@gmail.com The Journal of Antiques
devices that played them leave a trail of collectibles that and Collectibles
tell the musical history of early recorded sound. ISSN: (1539-5618)
By 1910, the record had overcome the cylinder as
the preferred format, and 78rpm records emerged as the P.O. Box 950
“standard rate.” Any flat disc record made between about Maxine Carter-Lome, Publisher Sturbridge, MA 01566
1898 and the late 1950s and playing at a speed around 78 The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles
revolutions per minute is called a “78” by collectors. reserves the right to reject any advertising that
While innovative, the 78 was limited to a single recorded Upcoming Issue Deadlines does not comply with our standards. The
Journal will not be liable for any errors or
song, with roughly three to five minutes of playtime omissions but will print a correction in the
per side. following issue if notification of such error is
sent by the appropriate deadline. Original
That limitation was removed in 1948 with the Issue Ad Deadlines Distribution Dates manuscripts are welcomed by qualified
introduction of the 33 1/3 rpm record by the Columbia April March 10 March 19 writers. We assume no responsibility for loss
of unsolicited material.
Record Company. With tighter grooves and a slower spin May April 14 April 23
rate, the 33 1/3 rpm record allowed for the recording of Copyright 2021
full-length albums. Sales soared as new music was recorded June May 12 May 21 All rights reserved
on these extended format discs. Ten years later, 78s July June 9 June 18
accounted for only 2% of U.S. record sales, and by 1959

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