Technology and its Impact on the Music Industry - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Technology and its Impact on the Music Industry

Tulane University

Scott Aiges’ class

Wednesday, December 1, 2004

• Special Operations, Tipitina’s Foundation
• Coordinator of the New Orleans Music Office Co-Op (http://musicofficecoop.com)
• Co-Founder & CTO, Exploit Systems Inc. (http://exploitsystems.com)
• Author of four published books on audio technology

History

Current Issues

Trends

Delivery Technologies

History

Current Issues

Trends

• Technological innovation’s downside:
• Obsolescence
• Frictional unemployment
• Disruption of existing business models
• Property disputes
• May enhance power structures

• Technological innovation’s upside:
• Efficiency
• Standardization
• Increased accuracy/quality
• Improved price/performance ratios
• Individual empowerment
• May erode power structures

• 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. Aristoxineans, circa 400 BC

• Early Horns included straight trumpets made of wood, bronze and silver
• Such as the salpinx found in Greece, and the Roman tuba, lituus, andbuccina.
• 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.

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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”

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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
• Biz Markee v Gilbert O’ Sullivan
• Sample licensing: new revenue stream

• 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

• 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

• “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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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?)

• 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”

• 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

• 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

• Verizon decision overruled
• 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; still less than 5% of the market
• CD sales rebounding slightly
• Music industry will co-opt P2P over time

Todd Souvignier

Tipitina’s Foundation

• New Orleans Music Office Co-Op
• 4040 Tulane Avenue (at Carrollton), 483-2880 http://musicofficecoop.com
• Personal: http://souvignier.net
• Email: todd@souvignier.net

• Daniel Gross, “Does a Free Download Equal a Lost Sale?” New York Times, November 21, 2004
• Editorial, “Music’s Brighter Future” The Economist, October 28, 2004