Recording medium

Recording medium

A recording medium is a physical material that holds information expressed in any of the existing recording formats.

Ancient examples

* Papyrus
* Paper (painted or written with a pencil). Today paper is mainly produced from wood pulp; in ancient times, old clothes were used. "Modern paper" was invented in France around the 14th century.
* Clay and stone (carved or incised)
* Wax tablets
* Chalk
* Quipu

Examples since the 19th century

* Photographic film
* Wax for recording Phonograph cylinders
* "Shellac" compound and later vinyl for analog disk records
* Plastic sheet for Dictaphone recorders
* Steel wire for magnetic wire recorders
* Magnetic tape
* Rigid magnetic disks and cylinders
* Floppy magnetic disks
* Pressed optical media for CDs and DVDs
* Write-once, read-many optical media for writable CDs and DVDs
* Read-write optical media for rewritable CDs and DVDs
* Flash memory media

See also

* Computer storage
* Multimedia
* Streaming Media
* Blank media tax
* Medium format film
* Nonlinear medium (random access)

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