History of the Music Industry

By Kieran Walker

Early BeginningsSome of the first recorded sounds were recorded in the year 1877 by Thomas Edison. The invention of the photograph by Edison would fundamentally change and develop the ways in which music was listened to, and allowed artists to gain further popularity outside of solely just performances. This proved to be a milestone in the later development of music production and recording.

Early 90’sAt the beginning of the 90’s, vinyl's were invented. During the 1970’s , LP/EP’s began growing in popularity. They continued to grow progressively until the launch of cassettes and cassette players ,lasting a strong stretch for over a decade until the launch of CD and CD players were introduced, and took the music industry to all new heights of popularity and sales.

The 80’sBeginning in the 80’s, record music industries and companies began to form , before eventually creating the ‘big 3’ manufacturing record labels known as Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music, which now own 72% of the music industry, with 27% being that of small, independent labels such as Domino Records. By now, CD’s were the most bought form of music within the industry.

The 90’sDigital media began to form, most specifically in the engineering of broadband in 2000, followed by MP3 and music player devices which allowed customers to download and share recorded music from artist from all over the globe. Although proving beneficial and preferred by customers, this has continually caused trouble for music institutions within the industry. With customers accessing and downloading their music from illegal music downloading sites such as Napster, as well as the increase in digital sales over physical music copies. However the invention of broadband proved helpful for wannabe music artists for promotion and distributing their own music free of cost, with the potential of reaching a global audience as well as possibility of being scouted and signed.

21st CenturyCurrently, the music industry has now developed significantly in its sales and distribution. In the early 2000’s, iTunes by Apple was invented, which has now become the largest music selling software programme of single sales in the world. 60% of consumers still l buy albums in-store however due to the increase of online music sales, this is swiftly becoming decreased. The music industry also still suffers considerably from continuous rises in piracy sites and illegal downloading, proving trouble for both artists and labels, including the big 3.