Early sound recordings from the turn of the century have been digitized and made available at the site below. I have a fairly large collection of lp records which I am loathe to turn loose of. My family enjoys music and we dip into the collection daily. For me, lp's have a visual and tactile quality as well as a warmth of sound that I just don't hear on cd's (although I have plenty of those as well). I think of my lp collection as a 1000 pound Ipod. It's always amusing when anyone born after 1980 comes into the house, and I have to explain what these relics are!
These cylinder recordings are a real treat, with an amazing range of musical styles, from vaudevillian ethnic humor to arias from popular operas. If you're interested in this sort of thing, this is a great resource for music from a bygone era.
http://www.cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/index.php
