Music is predominantly a digital domain these days. Sales of CDs continue to drop, and services like Spotify make it simple to listen to anything we want, whenever and wherever we want. One sector of physical music media has been growing exponentially in recent years however–vinyl LPs. Young music collectors have fallen in love with the analog romance of records and turntables, and sales are continuing to grow for a format that not too long ago was in danger of disappearing altogether.

A new book from music journalist and musician Mike Evans shines a light on the long history of records, from the fragile 78 rpm antiques of the early years to the peppy and trendy 45s heralding the emergence of pop and rock music to the 33 1/3 rpm LPs that revolutionized music during the middle of the twentieth century. The book is organized chronologically and walks us through over a…