TELEHARMONIUM???

The Teleharmonium was one of the first electronic instruments—picture a big, primitive electric organ—invented by one Thaddeus Cahill in the 1890’s.

The amazing thing about the Teleharmonium (btw, Cahill later decided he preferred the name “Dynamophone”) was that Cahill’s vision for its use was even more revolutionary than the actual technology of the instrument itself. His concept was that the Teleharmonium would generate electronic music that could then be broadcast via telephone lines into restaurants, hotels, and private homes as formal concerts or background music. 

Cahill was able to attract some subscribers and investors—even partnering with the New York Telephone Company to lay down special telephone lines in parts of Manhattan—but the project was pretty much dead in the water by the time the instrument was featured in a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1912. One of the main problems was "crosstalk" between the Teleharmonium and regular phone calls. Customers got mad and complained when their conversations were interrupted by Rossini overtures.

Newer technology soon usurped the Teleharmonium and Cahill's venture went bankrupt. As far as I know, there are no existing recordings of the instrument (better that way perhaps: from what I can gather about how it worked, it may have sounded pretty rough…). But what an amazingly prescient idea—to stream music via phone lines!