Replacing the old technology with the new

From cassettes to CDs, then MP3 players evolve into MP4 players. A look back at the how music has moved from concert halls to people’s backpockets.

Music has a long history, one so long that it is not really possible to pinpoint its creation. A collection of sounds and noises, in rhythm, time and harmony, music has provided entertainment and inspiration throughout its existence. In modern times, music has remained just as influential. So much, in fact, that it is extremely common to see people taking their music with them.

Before it was possible to record music to be listened to at leisure at a later time, people would have to have attended recitals to experience music. However, since the creation of analogue media such as cassettes and tapes, music has been passed around, shared, sold and taken home with ease. If recording music was revolutionary, the invention of the CD made things even easier as well as resigning cassette tapes to the bin. Unfortunately for the CD, MP3 files have developed and have well been on the way to laying the discs to rest.

Gone are the days when people carry portable CD players in their bags or grip them tightly in their hands. Now, the unit has been replaced by MP3 players. However, due to the virtual nature of the media they play, these come in all different shapes and sizes. Most of them will fit nicely into pockets, although the option of leaving it in the bag is still very much in use. Because of the flexible nature of their size, it’s also not uncommon to see them being clipped to garments and straps. Even smaller, lighter MP3 players can also be found dangling around owners’ necks.

Portable entertainment is no longer bound to just listening to music. Although portable TVs never really became genuinely mainstream, looking around a packed train will probably result in witnessing a good number of people who are watching something on electronic devices. Whether it’s an MP4 player, a specialist video player or a mobile phone, catching up with missed TV shows on the move is becoming a more popular activity of late. With this increasing trend of on demand viewing, perhaps the MP4 player will begin to push the MP3 player out of the way.

It is strange how things so similar can represent the changing of the guard. Whilst the contrast between cassettes and CDs is huge, MP3 and MP4 players essentially do the same thing; MP4 players just play videos in addition. A CD trumps a cassette with capacity, quality and longevity, but an MP3 player can match an MP4 player in just about every department. The biggest difference would be the most fundamental one. Similarities include using headphones or portable speakers, size and weight, battery life and styling designs, but an MP4 file will always be able to play video whereas an MP3 file is simply audio.

So, as we witness the rise of MP4 players, and possibly the demise of MP3 players, history and advances in technology would suggest that something new will come along and replace MP4s. The computing world is surely furiously working on an update that will be known as MP5, and a new breed of players will take on these incremental advances.