It's easy to take for granted the modern convenience of being able to listen to music, podcasts, or our favourite streaming videos through earbuds or headphones. When we're wearing these natty devices, we don't have to worry about anyone else hearing what we're listening to, which means they're extremely popular on public transport and for athletes and gamers. But when were they invented and who was responsible for coming up with such a cool design?

How Did Custom Headphones Originate?

Although we all think of promotional earbuds as thoroughly modern inventions, around since Walkmans in the 80's and Discmans in the 90's, they actually have a rather long history. During the 1850's medical stethoscopes were becoming key technology, allowing doctors to listen to heartbeats in their patients for diagnostic purposes. In 1877 well-known inventor Thomas Edison took the concept of the stethoscope and attached similar earpieces to his newly invented musical phonograph for listening. The result was a pair of not exactly fetching, but still technically functional ear buds that allowed him to help perfect the machine.

Headphones that connected directly with your seats in the theatre were popular in the 1890's, but it wasn't until records became popular in the 1950's that individual earbud sets became popular. Custom earphone sets, from their inception, consisted of two small speaker devices worn directly in the ear. Headphones on the other hand wrapped over the ear. Once record players took off, various inventors and corporations worked on perfecting headphones and earbuds for consumers. This included developing headphone headsets for office work in the 80's, as well as standard earbuds for the purpose of listening to music or the spoken word by the early 90's.

Now in the glorious 00's we've got an incredible variety of earbud choices. Available in all sorts of custom decorated styles and with an amazing variety of patterns and designs, our current earbuds are not just functional items that can be used for events and personal listening, they're practically works of art. Edison might have meant to simply work on his phonograph without major outside distraction, but his quirky little invention is now a mainstay of the modern world. Think about that the next time you're enjoying some music or podcasts using your personal earbuds! ;)

23rd Jan 2018 - Updated

Promotional Earbuds Sounding the Same

An interesting thing has occurred with earbuds in the last few years. Have you noticed that many earbuds that you purchase sound very similar to each other? In fact, most of the earbuds under $50 that you find in retail shops sound the same as our promotional earbuds which costs you only a few dollars. The reason? They are indeed the same product; it is just the packaging that is different. The market for earbuds has broadly split into ultra-premium and ultra cheap when it comes to audio.

Details first spotted here: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/magazine/who-made-that-earbud.html

and

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/08/the-secret-scam-of-cheap-earbuds/