Long before vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs and MP3s came along, people first experienced audio recordings through another medium — through cylinders made of tin foil, wax and plastic. In recent years, we’ve featured cylinder recordings from the 19th century that allow you to hear the voices of Leo Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, Walt Whitman, Otto von Bismarck and other towering figures.

Link:http://www.openculture.com/2015/11/download-10000-of-the-first-recordings-of-music-ever-made-courtesy-of-the-ucsb-cylinder-audio-archive.html