The first portable music player revolutionised the music industry and this year, it turns 40.

The Sony Walkman cassette player was released to consumers in 1979, and Wagga's Don Tuckwell has been around to see the switch from clunky record players to CDs and Bluetooth surround sound.

"When I left school in the early 50s, I had my first record which was a breakable 45, you'd drop them and they'd shatter," he said.

"It was a delicate piece to a collection and now a lot of people's music collections are all digital so they don't have that precious quality."

Mr Tuckwell has owned Don Tuckwell's Audio store for decades and said the change in people's listening habits are constantly surprising.

"There was obviously the clear shift between the record, then the cassette and then the CD, but I remember a time around the late 70s to mid 80s where there was this balance of near equal sales between the three," he said.

"People still had the players for records and cassettes as well as new CD players so there was a demand for all of them."

The digital age has definitely had an effect on purchasing trends, according to Mr Tuckwell.

"There was a time when CDs were at their peak, you wouldn't know how many you'd sell, it was into the hundreds mostly but now you're lucky to sell into the tens - it's really thinning out but not completely," he said.

"I think that's because the kids born in the late 90s grew up in a time where the digital age really kicked off and they never had a proper taste of hard copy music."

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But Mr Tuckwell said not all hope was lost for the hard copy industry.

"I think we are taking a step back towards the record players now though, I don't know how it came back into fashion but bringing them back re-branded as vinyls has definitely been one of the big factors in stopping the digital download demise," he said.

"People like collecting, it's like anything - some people like shoes, or bags, and some like music.

"There's something special about having a hard copy, physical evidence of a collection and particularly nowadays, vinyls often come with a digital download anyway."

Mr Tuckwell said he even has people looking for cassettes still to this day, and believed that in the end, people's love for music will prevail.

"We all thought books would go down the drain when ebooks came about, or newspapers too, but they're still kicking so I don't think we have to worry about losing the hard copy industry," he said.

The music industry is not alone in feeling the effects of technologies continual advancements.

Director of IT Solutions and Service David Merlino said PC technologies have come a long way with a focus on lifestyle.

"Mobile computing is becoming the biggest thing now. People can work from home much more efficiently and conveniently," he said.

"Everything on phones like texts to emailing and overall productivity are pushing the attitude of working from a mobile so people don't have to be stuck in an office. You have more flexibility."

Visuals are just as important as function, according to Mr Merlino.

"You can get PCs now as big as your palm, and people choose the look of things over function whether that be colours or how thin a laptop is," he said.

"The trend is making everything more versatile to cater for everyone's needs."