CELEBRATING OUR TENTH ANNIVERSARY!
A Brief History of Sound Recording: Fully Incomplete and Highly Biased
The new book from Museum of Portable Sound Press is both a gallery guide and a standalone history of audio recording!
•2015–2025•
Our visitors make an appointment – with us and themselves – to listen!
(Visit online or meet us in person – alone or in a group!)
Our sounds are organised by topic – the same way other museums exhibit visual objects.
We maintain a Physical Objects Collection, a Research Library, and a Video Gallery.
We also present online exhibitions!
We offer classes & workshops, organise conferences, and publish writing about sound.
What our visitors say:
‘Interrogates what museums are with an inventive curatorial approach and presents its artefacts with a sense of fun often absent in sound art.’
—The Wire Magazine
‘An amazing project – magical.’
—Judith Clark
‘A thing of beauty!’
—Londonist.com
‘I’ve never thought about sound in this way before!’
—First Year Student, Bournemouth Film School
‘*****, would go back’
—Seth Cluett
‘Plays with sound as media and media as sound…investigates the many facets of a young and quickly evolving culture of sound and listening.’
—Reviews in Digital Humanities
Our Director was awarded a PhD from University of the Arts London for the thesis he wrote about his creation of this museum, Listening to Museums: Sounds as Objects of Culture and Curatorial Care.
Latest News
A Brief History of Sound Recording book now available
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE A Brief History of Sound Recording: Fully Incomplete and Highly Biasedby Dr John Kannenberg Imprint: Museum of Portable Sound PressOn sale: 27 November 2025Price: £30.00Pages: 124ISBN: 9798347413720 CONTACT:Johnjohn[at]museumofportablesound.com “A true labour of love and well worth your time.” —Wallpaper* Magazine, December 2025 Ten years in the making, this unconventional history of audio…
Museum of Portable Sound Marks Its First Decade Of Operation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE PORTSMOUTH, UK, 11 November: The Museum of Portable Sound (MOPS) today commemorates the tenth anniversary of its first public event, its Grand Opening Gala which took place at 6:30pm at the London College of Communication, Elephant & Castle, London. The capacity crowd in attendance witnessed a ribbon cutting ceremony officiated by Professor…
Wallpaper* Magazine Reviews ‘A Brief History of Sound Recording’
Wallpaper* Magazine has published a review of our forthcoming book, A Brief History of Sound Recording: Fully Incomplete and Highly Biased, in a new listicle entitled “14 of the best new books for music buffs.” “The book is a true labour of love and well worth your time.” – Wallpaper* Magazine The entire review reads:…
We bring the culture & history of sound beyond music to the world, one listener at a time.
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The Museum of Portable Sound is a member of these professional organisations:
The Museum of Portable Sound 