Originally invented in the late-1800s, player pianos were the first full-scale sequencers. They functioned by winding a pneumatic motor and then feeding a perforated sheet of paper called a "piano roll," through a mechanism that interpreted the perforations as notes and played them. While primitive by today's standards, player pianos have inspired many subsequent sequencer devices and applications. For example, a "piano roll editor" - directly inspired by and imitating the original piano rolls - is a common feature in many software sequencers and other music-editing applications today.
The first electronic sequencers appeared in the late-1970s, and quickly gained popularity among musicians as practice aids, as automatic accompaniment and as creative tools in their own right. Because the earliest examples, such as the Roland MC-8 (1977), were quite expensive, it was not long before competing companies began to take advantage of a growing demand for smaller, more affordable devices, such as the Roland MSQ-700 (1984) or the Akai ASQ-10 (1986).
The early 1990s saw further developments in consumer-level sequencing hardware. Sequencers became smaller, more affordable and manufacturers began to cater to their growing popularity among electronic and dance musicians. Within these genres, sequencers became instruments in their own right and were essential to groups such as Daft Punk and Aphex Twin. With the advent of software-based sequencers in the mid-1990s, musicians were offered greater flexibility at a much lower cost. As a result, hardware sequencers began to become boutique items used primarily by a dwindling number of enthusiasts and collectors.
By the early 2000s, software sequencers such as Propellerhead's ReBirth RB-338 had come to dominate the sequencer market, often by emulating older sequencer hardware that by then had become difficult to come by. The advent and rapid development of digital audio workstation (DAW) applications with integrated sequencing functions, such as Emagic's Logic and Propellerhead's Reason, raised sequencing to new levels of sophistication. Today, most professionally produced music is recorded, edited and sequenced using one of the major DAW environments.