Ongoing History Daily: How Thomas Edison decided if you were worthy of his talking machine

Everywhere you go, someone else is determining the kind of music you should hear: record labels, marketing companies, focus groups, streaming algorithms, radio stations—but it’s a lot better than it used to be. How bad was it? Check this out.

Back when recorded sound was just getting started in the late 1800s, the people who made the new talking machines also decided who got recorded. Thomas Edison, who invented the first recording device personally determined who would use his new technology. Only performers who met with his personal approval were recorded.

But get this: late in his life, Edison was deaf. So how did he determine who was worthy? In two ways.

First, he would inspect the grooves eye made in the cylinder by eye to see if the performer was “acoustically proper.” Then he would put the disc on his machine and then bite down with his teeth on the wood cabinet so he could feel the musical vibrations. If the recording passed those two tests, it was made available for sale.