Hear Martin Atkins On The Evolution Of Recorded Music Formats

The way we listen to music evolves constantly. From wax cylinder recordings all the way through to today’s streaming services, formats have come a long way. What’s next? What does this unending metamorphosis say about the music industry? And what does any of this have to do with Robert De Niro?

In another installment of NPR’s series The Martin Atkins Minute, Martin Atkins, the Public Image Ltd. drummer-turned-professor of music business at the SAE Institute, explains it all, from the strange newness of emerging formats to how vinyl records made such a resurgence that they ended up in Whole Foods.