Nostalgia: early sound

 

2000: Introduction of the USB stick, with the first version containing 8 MB of memory. The MP3 player makes its debut. This effectively renders the physical audio medium obsolete, as the music is stored within the device itself rather than on a separate audio medium. 2001: Apple launches the first iPod media player. These feature a hard drive and can store much more data than the MP3 players of that era. 2006: Sony releases the last MiniDisc device to date. 2008: Sony and EMI announce they will cease production of CD singles in the coming year. 

 The Future Because the music industry was late in realizing that the future of the audio medium lies in downloading or streaming music, it has suffered significant losses and fallen behind in recent years. MP3 files, in particular, are widely available on the internet. It is expected that in the coming years, the physical audio medium as we know it today will be further displaced by these online technologies.