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The Spin on Music

May 8, 2013

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Profile America -- Wednesday, May 8th. The first disc-type phonograph record was demonstrated publicly this month in 1888. The invention of Emile Berliner of Washington, D.C. was called a gramophone, and used a flat disc of a spiraling groove to reproduce sound. Rather than the cylinders of the day. These proved easier to duplicate for the mass market. A few years later, Berliner founded the Victor Talking Machine Company. The era of the disc phonograph record lasted about a century, until replaced by compact discs in the 1980s. Now, CD sales have fallen from more than $13 billion in 2000 to just over $3 billion, as consumers turn to downloaded digital music. You can find more facts about America's people, places and economy from the American Community Survey at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: Library of Congress, American Memory
Kane's Famous First Facts, 7006
Statistical Abstract of the United States, t. 1140
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/information_communications.html