Conclusion: From national to global

The conclusion sums up how the cultural history of the phonograph in Spain can prompt a re-examination of the global history of early recording technologies, and lists four areas in which this re-examination might be particularly necessary. Firstly, the role of Edison, his companies, and other recording multinationals in crafting and spreading the idea of the recording as a concept and setting the foundations of the recording industry might need to be further re-evaluated and contextualized. Secondly, increased attention needs to be paid to the national and local characteristics that impinged discourses around modernity in the period at hand. Thirdly, the early history of recording technologies needs to be read as a history of possibilities, shaped by national, regional, and local cultural specificities. Fourthly, greater awareness should develop of how indigenous repertoires contributed to shaping recording practices and ontologies of recording technologies in particular ways, rather than recording technologies being used to passively record what was already there.