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 include:
- photographic film
- wax for recording 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
