The Music Industry & Technological Innovation

1. Technology & The Music Industry
Music Industry
www.musicstudentinfo.com
Chris Baker

2. Outline: 2X Revolutions
Production Technologies Delivery Technologies
History History
Current Issues Current Issues
Trends Trends

3. A Dual Edge
Technological innovation’s downside:
Obsolescence
Frictional unemployment
Disruption of existing business models
Property disputes
May enhance power structures

4. A Dual Edge
Technological innovation’s upside:
Efficiency
Standardization
Increased accuracy/quality
Improved price/performance ratios
Individual empowerment
May erode power structures

5. Production Technologies: Piano
Pianoforte developed around 1720, by Bartolomeo Cristofori of
Padua, Italy
Replaced harpsichord as the standard keyboard instrument
“velocity sensitive”
Forced acceptance of Equal Temperament as the tuning
standard for Western music
“Settled” a tuning argument that began with Pythagoreans v
Aristotoleans, circa 400 BC

6. Production Technologies: Horns
Early Horns included straight trumpets made of wood, bronze
and silver such as the salpinx found in Greece, and the Roman
tuba, lituus, and buccina
The modern brass orchestra became feasible only after 1840,
when machines capable of making consistent valves were
invented
Beethoven first major composer to use trombones, in his 5th
and 9th symphonies

7. Production Technologies: Engraving
Gutenberg Bible: 1455
Constance Gradual first fully-printed sheet music, 1473
(Germany); Used freehand wood engraving
Brietkopf (Germany) developed moveable type system for music
in 1754
Lithography first used to print music in 1796, used limestone
plates
Photolithography using zinc plates perfected 1860

8. Production Technologies: Copyright
• 1709: Statute of Anne 1st British © law
• U.S. Copyright Act of 1790: books, maps
• Berne Convention 1887 rationalizes international copyright
law (except in U.S.)
• Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act 1998 adds years,
favors corporations
• Life of Author, plus 75 - 95 years
• Mickey Mouse would have entered public domain 2000

9. Production Technologies: Electrical
Recording
Electrical Recording developed by AT&T 1924, popularized by
Victor as “Orthophonic”
IMPACT:
•Better sound quality
•Easier recording setups
•Music now fills the home
•Crooners replace belters

10. Production Technologies: Tape Recording
Magnetic Tape developed in Nazi Germany - AEG Magnetophon
U.S. Army Signal Corp liberates technology, delivers it to Ampex
Bing Crosby finances development
IMPACT:
•Sound Quality
•Time Shifting
•Editing
•Killed the “transcription disk”

11. Production Technologies: Multitrack
Multitrack tape recording developed by Les Paul, 1950s
Popularized by Beatles, late 1960s
IMPACT:
•Destroyed the simultaneous performance imperative
•Allowed “one man bands” and “auteur” style of record
production
•Better sound quality
•Eroded the studio orchestra business

12. Production Technologies: Synthesizers
Synthesizer developed by Moog, Buchla, others, early 1960s
“Switched-On Bach” by Wendy Carlos was the watershed LP
IMPACT:
•Inaugurated a boom era in musical electronics
•Expanded sonic palette
•“Replacing musicians” more hype than fact

13. Production Technologies: Drum Machines
Drum machine introduced by Roland, Linn late 1970s
Cheap digital drum machines become prevalent early 1980s
IMPACT:
•Improved rhythmic accuracy
•Streamlined the recording process
•Improved price/performance
•Eroded studio drummer business

14. Production Technologies: Sampling
Introduced by Fairlight, NED, others, mid-1970s
Becomes prevalent mid-1980s
IMPACT:
•Derivative recordings become a primary mode of popular
music production
•Touched off a firestorm of litigation
•Sample licensing: new revenue stream

15. Production Technologies: Computer
Recording
Computer-based digital multitracking developed by OSC, others,
late 1980s
Feasible for home users mid-1990s
IMPACT:
•Accelerates the home recording trend
•Improves quality of independent recordings
•Erodes the professional studio business
•Kills the analog multitrack business
•End of huge recording budgets

16. Production Technologies: Current Issues
High-resolution audio
Faster sample rates, bigger bit depths
Surround mixing
Driven by the DVD market
Sampling prohibition creates inequities
Ease of access -> flood of bad music
Supply outstrips demand, now more than ever

17. Production Technologies: Trends
“Mix Tapes” (usually CD-Rs) are a new enforcement priority
Replicators forced to become sample cops
Quality and price/performance will continue to improve
Performance/skill augmentation

18. Delivery Technologies: Phonograph
Phonograph patented by Edison, 1878
Berliner patents disk phonograph, 1895
Berliner & Frank Seaman introduce spring-wound Gramophone,
1897
IMPACT:
•Preservation & exploitation of performances
•Brought music into the homes of non-performers
•Eroded the piano & sheet music industries
•Pianos declared “obsolete” 1904
•Eroded the live music performance business
•Created the new role of Disk Jockey

19. Delivery Technologies: Radio
Radio developed by Tesla, Marconi, Fessenden mid-1890s to
1906
Popularized as consumer entertainment by Westinghouse,
others, 1920s
IMPACT:
•Competed with the phonograph record industry, live music
performance and sheet music publishing
•BMI formed to counteract ASCAP
•ASCAP Strike exposes “outsider” music, 1941
•Broadcast Prohibition 1920s – 1940
•“Not Licensed For Broadcast” struck down by SCOTUS in RCA v
Whiteman -> No Performance Right for Sound Recordings

20. Delivery Technologies: Vinyl
Vinyl 12” LP and 7” 45 developed late 1940s
“microgroove” recordings
Early 1950s market confusion and sales slump
Industry settles on the album/single concept
IMPACT:
•Better sound quality than shellac
•Better handling, durability
•Cheaper to manufacture, transport, store
•Taught the record business the value of obsolescence and
upgrades

21. Delivery Technologies: Cassette
Cassette tape developed as a music delivery medium by Henry
Kloss
Dolby NR was lynchpin - 1971: Advent 201
Consumers preferred cassette to 8-Track
IMPACT:
•Recordable medium gives consumers more control over music
•Record business accepts format, fights home taping
•Leads to cassette-based multitracks & the first stage of the
home recording trend
•8-track, reel-to-reel obsolete consumer formats

22. Delivery Technologies: CD
Compact Disc (CD) developed by Sony & Philips; Matsushita
accepts standard 1981
Introduced to U.S. market 1983
Labels stop taking vinyl returns 1988
IMPACT:
•Better sound quality
•Cheaper to manufacture, transport, store
•Artists paid less
•Higher retail & wholesale prices
•Consumers re-purchased their collections
•Vinyl, turntables obsolete
•Rescued & maintained by DJs

23. Delivery Technologies: DAT
Digital Audio Tape (DAT) - Sony 1987
Based on VCRs: helical scan
Originally envisioned as a consumer medium
IMPACT:
•Precipitated passage of Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 “the
DAT tax”
•SCMS mandated for consumer units
•Only pros adopted DAT
•AHRA assumes pre-emptive guilt, creates new revenue stream
for labels
•“Piracy” becomes bogeyman

24. Delivery Technologies: Web
Tim Berners-Lee invents WWW at CERN, 1990
Military/Educational Arpanet opened to general public, renamed
Internet, 1994
Advent of the dot-com domain
IMPACT:
•Artists (and virtually all other businesses) forced to migrate to
computers, use email, have Web sites
•Inexpensive, instant self-publishing allows a proliferation of
new voices, increases the general noise level
•Music became a factor w/ advent of MP3 format and high-
speed service

25. Delivery Technologies: MP3
Moving Picture Experts Group publishes MPEG-1 Specification, 1993
MPEG-1, Audio Layer 3 (aka MP3) adopted by Internet music hobbyists
IMPACT:
•RIAA v Diamond Multimedia (the “Rio case”) establishes exemption
for computer devices
•MP3.com popularizes format with artists
•Spurs development of competing compressed formats, including
WMA, AAC
•Erosion of label control over distribution
•Overall DECREASE in sound quality

26. Delivery Technologies: P2P
Shawn Fanning writes Napster, first peer-to-peer
search/retrieval system, 1999
Justin Frankel writes Gnutella, first distributed P2P application,
2000
Many descendants, Bit Torrent, eDonkey, etc.
IMPACT:
•Practically all music available for free, instantly
•Erosion of label control over distribution
•DECREASE in sound quality (see MP3)
•Disruption of recording industry business models
•Record industry begins suing its own customers
•Internet piracy becomes hot-button (or red herring?)

27. Delivery Technologies: Streaming
Apple Computer introduces QuickTime, 1991
RealAudio introduced, 1995
Yahoo buys Broadcast.com for $5 Billion, 1999
DPRA establishes performance rights for sound recordings, 1995
CARP negotiation -> streaming royalties, 2002
IMPACT:
•Immediate unplugging of most streams
•RIAA spin-off SoundExchange becomes collector of a new
private “tax”

28. Delivery Technologies: Issues
Ownership called into question
Music consumers demonized as “pirates” - a generation
criminalized
Opens the doorway for taxing ISPs, other computer
products/services
Along with anti-terrorism, anti-piracy efforts risk establishing a
police state

29. Delivery Technologies: Trends
Digital Rights Management (DRM) cornerstone of for-profit
online music businesses
Labels segue from CD business to marketing/management
DVDs, Merch, personal appearances, licensing are main products
Pre-recorded music -> a loss leader
P2P -> entrenched distribution venue

30. Delivery Technologies: Trends
Courts rejecting mass-John Doe suits
Grokster decision legitimizes P2P apps
Labels now willing to sell into P2P
Snocap, WurldMedia
Licensed music services gaining traction
CD sales rebounding slightly
Music industry will co-opt P2P over time