Phonograph Advertisements

 

A significant part of the phonograph's history are its advertisements.

Phonograph ads, like any consumer ad, tell stories with a variety of themes and images to sell their products. But what was unique to phonograph ads was the number of ways that showed how recorded sound could change listeners relationships with music.

Home entertainment was being redefined. The social and popular culture revolution of recorded music had begun with music on demand, anywhere, as many times as you wanted and whatever you wanted. All that was required was the purchase of a phonograph and records. In the process the phonograph industry became a major advertiser promoting their machines, recorded music and the artists.

Select from the following advertising themes and period specific galleries or use the PhonoAds Table of Contents.

 

Pre -1900 Ads		"Looking for the Band"		Artists Inside the Horn
1900 -1905 Ads		Edison's 1905 Double Service (1)		1905 - 1910 Ads
"Which is which?"		"Both are..."		The Stage of the World
1910 - 1915 Ads		1915 - 1920 Ads		1920 - 1930 Ads
1930 - 1940 Ads		1940 - 1945 Ads		1945 - 1950 Ads
Post 1950 Ads		PhonoElegance		Shopping for a Phonograph
At Home or at the Opera		Edison Tone Tests		Hear it Anywhere!
PhonoDance		Happy Homes - Something for Everyone		The Phonograph with a Soul
Phonograph Billboards and Signs		Visions of Artists in the Home		Music on the Record
Phonograph Window Displays		An Age of Wonders!		January 1919 Phonograph Ads
New Victor Records January 1919		Carola Phonograph		"Clear as a Bell" The Sonora Phonograph
Portable Phonographs		The Columbia Twentieth Century Graphophone		Santa, Christmas and the Phonograph
The Brownies and the Phonograph		The Victor Book of the Opera		The 2015 Launch of Apple Music
Other Ways to Own a Phonograph		RCA Victor's "Golden Throat"		Nipper, Dogs and the Phonograph
Silhouette Ads - Edison		"Advergraphs" Slogans, Phrases and Logos		Tone, Fidelity and Realism
Children's Phonographs and Popular Culture Characters		Cable Addresses and the Phonograph		Silhouette Ads - Columbia
Keeping Fit with the Phonograph Exercise to Music		Victor Supremacy		Pathé is Supreme
Massani's "The Phonograph" Edison's "Old Couple"		Appealing to the customer's 'human' side		Victor Recordrama Albums

 

Willa Cather's Prototypes Who Were Recording Artists