Phonograph "gramophones" or "talking-machines". His "gramophone record" was the first disc record to be offered to the public. They were five inches (12.7 cm) in diameter and recorded on one side only. Seven-inch (17.5 cm) records followed in 1895. Also in 1895 Berliner replaced the hard rubber used to make the discs with a shellac compound. Berliner's early records had poor sound quality, however. Work by Eldridge R. Johnson improved the sound fidelity to a point where it was as good as the cylinder. By 1901, ten-inch (25 cm) records were marketed by Johnson and Berliner's Victor Talking Machine Company, and
Said the Gramophone introducing them to a wider audience. It was also among the first outlets to write about Beirut, Nicolas Jaar, Basia Bulat, Yeasayer, Feist, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Besides its longevity, Said the Gramophone has been recognized for its "inventive, literary style" — using metaphor, anecdote and even short fiction to describe the way a song "feels" to the listener. It is also notable for the way it has never accepted advertising, subsisting on occasional funding drives from its readers. In 2009, "Time Magazine" selected Said the Gramophone as one of the 25 best blogs in the world. Guest