Recording Industry History

The recording industry today is made possible because of the contributions inventors like Thomas Edison, who invented the phonograph and Emile Berliner, who developed the gramophone. In the late 19th century early disc players required large horns to amplify their sound. IN 1925 Joseph Maxfield perfected the music playing equipment to eliminate the tinny sound of the recordings. Two years later jukeboxes were manufactured and brought music to restaurants and night clubs. By the 1940’s albums came about, but they were not the same albums we know today. Back then an album consisted of a set of ten envelopes with a song recorded on each side of the record. In 1947, Peter Goldmark created the long-playing (LP) record that could play a length of

Motown Records is now part of Universal Music Group. By 1960 transistors arrived and allowed radio to become portable. Next in 1979 Sony introduced the Walkman personal stereo. By the year 2000 CD players with a CD recorder were introduced. After that Apple introduced the Apple iPod, a portable music player that allowed users to download and store music. Apple continued to dominate 21st century music innovation by launching iTunes, an online music store. iTunes became the largest music retailer by 2008. In recent years more streaming services became part of the music world. Music streaming sites such as Spotify, Rhapsody, Pandora, Apple Music and Tidal pay the artist depending on how many times their song is played. Like all the other media industries, recordings have five separate divisions that responsible for making a song and releasing it to the public. The five divisions are Artist and repertoire, Operations, Marketing and Promotion, Distribution, and Administration. Concerts have become a way for music artist to receive another source of revenue and also showcase their music to their fans. The music business is dominated by only three major companies: Sony/BMG, Universal and

Radio station then agreed to pay ASCAP royalties through a licensing agreement. Still most radio station were reluctant to pay the royalties, thus caused the creation of Broadcast Music Inc. Broadcasters tried to license the music themselves. The music industry has always faced three challenges: Attempts to control music content through music labeling, Overseas piracy and Protect music copyrights from Internet file sharing. In 1985 the Parents Music Resource Center called for recording companies to label their recordings if it featured any explicit content. Overseas music piracy cost the music industry over $1 billion dollars a year and control 18 percent of album sales. Internet file sharing sites such as Napster violated copyright laws and were sued by several artist and the RIAA. In 2003 the RIAA sued 261 individual for downloading free music. In June 2005 the Supreme Court announced a decision that shut down many free music software providers. Today the music industry is still trying to survive even with its rapid loss in income caused by free downloads. The music industry encourages legal downloading sites and paid streaming