Amberola

An amberola is a type of hand-cranked phonograph that had an internal rather than external horn. Released in the marketplace in 1908, it used phonograph cylinders, which were placed inside the machine that could play 4-minutes of music. These cylinders were mass-producible, and were the first type of mass produced recordings used by Edison Records. Previously recordings made for Edison's "speaking phonograph" had to be recorded one at a time, and could not be replicated; meaning musicians would have to play for every single individual record made, and that each recording sold would not be the same. The amberola cylinders enabled Edison Records to greatly expand its catalogue of recordings by making it possible to have musicians record one time to produce a large volume of sellable recordings that were identical rather than have to play repeatedly.