An Apple iPod outdoor advertisement in 2008 in Munich, Germany. The company officially announced Tuesday to discontinue the iPod Touch, the last iPod model released in 2007, ending an era of music players. Photo: VCG

A Beatles song plays on an iPod in 2010. Apple first introduced the iPod in 2001 and popularized the MP3 player to the masses. By some estimations, the company commanded more than 70% of global MP3 market by 2011. Photo: VCG

Commuters walk past iPod advertisements in Beijing subway in 2007. Prior to the iPod, a South Korean firm, Saehan Information Systems, released the first-ever portable MP3 player in 1997. Photo: Robert Wallis/VCG

A couple walks past a shop window displaying an Aiwa portable CD player on Shanghai’s Nanjing Road in 1993. The CD player is widely recognized to have been first launched in 1982. Photo: Peter Charlesworth/VCG

Music CD albums displayed in an exhibition in June 2021 in Fuzhou, East China’s Fujian province. The ‘album’ format gained popularity in China from 1980 to 1990. Photo: VCG

A collection of pre-loved tapes in Heze, Shandong province. The cassette tape was invented by Lou Ottens from the Dutch company Philips in September 1963. The music tape transformed the way the masses consume and share music through its portability. Photo: VCG

Astronauts listen to music from a Sony Walkman on the lower deck of the shuttle Discovery in 1984. Sony released its first Walkman, the TPS-L2, on July 1, 1979. Photo: VCG

A woman listens to music with a walkman in 1988 in Paris. Photo: Frederic Reglain/VCG

A woman holds a stereo cassette recorder in China in 1985. The first stereo cassette recorder was introduced in 1966 in Europe. Photo: John Downing/VCG

Children sit among vinyl records with a phonograph next to them. The disc phonograph record nearly dominated the commercial audio recording market throughout the 20th century. Photo: VCG

A nurse operates a gramophone to provide music, as a dentist attends to a patient. Photo: Hulton Deutsch/VCG

Chinese children listen to music with a phonograph in 1901. Photo: Ullstein Bild/VCG

In 1877, Thomas Edison invented the speaking phonograph, a device to record and playback sound. Photo: VCG