History of the Music Industry: Recorded Music

Although music and the business of music has been around for as long as mankind has been around, the ability of being able to record it is fairly new for us. But in the small span of time that we’ve had this ability there have been multiple changes in format, sometimes even multiple popular formats at once. But there is always a winner in the end, and that winner always gets pushed aside by the newest technology.

“The ability to record a particular band performing a particular composition using the sheet music for it, created the recorded music industry” (Smith, “A Brief History…”). The first person to record audio was Leon Scott in 1857. But it was not able to play back; this recording was put on paper. It quickly lead Thomas Edison in 1877 to build a machine that could both record and play back the audio it created using thing metal cylinders, this machine is called a phonograph.

Fast forward to 1943; troops in WWII were unable to take fragile discs with them so a new format was created as a more durable form of music entertainment. This format was known as “V-discs” but now known as Vinyl. But vinyl lasted even longer then WWII and survived even while the cassette tape became mainstream in 1944.

But once the portable tape player is introduced in 1951, cassette tapes become the main format. It is especially evident in 1964 when Phillips introduces its 30 minute format for tape cartridges (Taintor, “Chronology…”). The tape lasted up until the next form of technology was introduced; CD’s.

Then in the 1980’s the CD was introduced and become explosively popular within the industry. According to Taintor’s “Chronology: Technology and the Music Industry”, “Within three years of the CD’s arrival in the marketplace, the electronics industry sells one million CD players.” Because the CD becomes the most popular format so quickly it pushes the other formats away to almost nothing.

Of course all this information is generally just profiling The US; other countries experienced the same phenomenon. In Sweden CD’s did almost the same thing, just a few years later, “The relatively new CD format experienced retail unit sales growth of 47% in 1991, overtaking the vinyl LP to become the biggest album format” (Music and Copyright).

But every format’s reign must come to an end. And the end of the CD’s reign begins in 1995 when RealAudio launches the first streaming audio service. Despite its poor sound quality people still used it. Websites like Napster begin to pop up on the internet, Napster being the most prominent. The site used copyrighted material which is why in 1999 Napster’s Shawn fanning was sued for copyright infringement. By 2001 Napster was shut down.

But then in 2003 Apple Launches iTunes. The most successful online music store selling MP3’s for $0.99 a song (Taintor, “Chronology…”). Today most people still buy most of their music on iTunes. So the question is, when will the online streaming reign come to an end? And what will be the next big format to hit us all? Only time and technological advancements tell us what it is.

Works Cited

1. Smith, Theo. “A Brief History of The Music Industry – MTT Open – Music Think Tank.” Web log     post. Music Think Tank. Hyperbot.com, 7 June 2012. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://www.musicthinktank.com/mtt-open/a-brief-history-of-the-musicindustry.html
2. Taintor, Callie. “Chronology: Technology and the Music Industry.” Web log post. PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2013. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/inside/cron.html&gt;.
3. Music and Copyright. “A Short History of The Music Industry: Different Formats, Familiar Names but Same Old Problems.” Web log post. Music & Copyrights Blog. Informa Telecoms &  Media, 6 Feb. 2013. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://musicandcopyright.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/a-short-history-of-the-music-industry-different-formats-familiar-names-but-the-same-old-problems/&gt;