Music History

Music, art & the people behind it.

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LIVE SESSION · NPR MUSIC

Ed Sheeran

Tiny Desk (Home) Concert

Open on YouTube →

▶Watch on YouTube

Official NPR Music performance · Opens on YouTube. No autoplay.

The video stays on the publisher’s platform. NPR coverage · Thumbnail supplied by YouTube.

Records, tapes & CDs

Pick a format to explore its story.

Real photographs. Real histories. Photographer credits ↓

MUSIC & ART

In pictures

Live stages, instruments and music-inspired art.

Explore & play

Keep scrolling. Everything is open to explore.

Make some noiseYour own eight-step beat

Make it yours.

THE BEAT LAB

An empty rhythm is a starting point. Switch the steps on and off. Change the tempo. Make it yours.

Tempo 96 BPM

Sound starts only when you press play. Original synthesized sounds, not a song recording.

Take a trip through timeThe moments that changed listening

TODAY’S PICK

FOLLOW THE SOUND

A few turning points

Tap a year

Choose a journey

Choose a route through the archive. Three stops, one bigger story.

Stories to get lost in

Find a story

MUSIC IS BIGGER THAN A FORMAT

Hear the world behind the sound.

Recording technology is only one chapter. Explore traditions, communities and recordings from around the world in the Smithsonian Folkways collection.

Explore Smithsonian Folkways ↗

Test your music instinctsTwo moments. Which came first?

TEST YOUR MEMORY

Which came first?

Two milestones. Trust your music instincts.

Compare the formatsGrooves, tape and digital discs

What’s the difference?

Your findsKeep the stories you want to come back to

Your discovery crate 0

Save stories as you explore. Kept in this browser only, not shared or synced.

Keep exploring the Collective

Vinyl Crates Find your next favorite ↗Tapes Browse the collection ↗CDs Discover more albums ↗

Photographs & credits

Real photographs, not AI-generated images. Display crops are used; open a photograph to see it without cropping.

“Spinnin’ Record” — Jack Hamilton. Source · CC0. Cropped for layout.
“2023 Kaseta magnetofonowa i minikaseta (1)” — Jacek Halicki. Source · CC BY-SA 4.0. Display crops under the same license.
“CDs” — Silver Spoon. Source · CC BY 3.0. Cropped in the archive view.
“Concert crowd (Unsplash).jpg” — Hannah Rodrigo. Source · CC0. Display crops used.
“Weathered guitar painting (Unsplash).jpg” — Maite Tiscar. Source · CC0. Display crops used.
“My first guitar (Unsplash).jpg” — Matheus Ferrero. Source · CC0. Display crops used.
“Piano reflection (Unsplash).jpg” — Isaac Ibbott. Source · CC0. Display crops used.
Colorful jazz concert (Unsplash).jpg — Jens Thekkeveettil. Source · CC0. Display crops used.
Drum-kit 2015.jpg — Gabriel Barletta. Source · CC0. Display crops used.