Technology and its

Impact
on the Music Industry
Tulane University
Scott Aiges’ class
Wednesday, December 1, 2004
 Introduction: Todd
Souvignier
• 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
 Outline: Two
Concurrent Revolutions
• Production • Delivery
Technologies Technologies
– History – History
– Current Issues – Current Issues
– Trends – Trends
 Thesis: A Dual Edge
• Technological innovation’s
downside:
– Obsolescence
– Frictional unemployment
– Disruption of existing business
models
– Property disputes
– May enhance power structures
 Thesis: A Dual Edge
• Technological innovation’s upside:
– Efficiency
– Standardization
– Increased accuracy/quality
– Improved price/performance ratios
– Individual empowerment
– May erode power structures
 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. Aristoxineans, circa
400 BC
 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, 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.
 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
 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
 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
 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”
 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
 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
 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
 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
– Biz Markee v Gilbert O’ Sullivan
– Sample licensing: new revenue stream
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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?)
 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”
 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
 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
 Delivery Technologies:
Trends
• 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
 Thank You
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
Recommended Reading
• 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