Chapter 7

Recordings And The Music Industry: Copyright Battles, Format Wars

Chapter Outline• History• Industry• Controversies

A Brief History of Recording

Music In An Oral Culture• “classical” music in the 14th Century

Demand for printed music• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

wrote a little music on the side• Works from Haydn and Mozart

become popular entertainment in parlors around Europe

A Brief History of Recording

Industrial Revolution and high-speed printers• Sheet music to play at home becomes

big business• Music is copyrighted in 1831

A Brief History of Recording

Early Recording Technology• 1877: Thomas Edison makes first

recording, calls invention Phonograph.

• 1906: Victor Company’s Victrola discs were easier to produce and less expensive than cylinders.

• Ragtime hits like Scott Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” and Tin Pan Alley favorites like “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” sold well.

• 1914: Music publishers join together and form ASCAP to fight for strong copyright laws.

A Brief History of Recording

Enter Radio• 1920s birth of commercial radio• Radio spurred sales in the beginning.• Music becomes trendy: Jazz recordings,

then big bands, then country music. Dance crazes sell records.

• 1930s: Live radio and Great Depression cause dip in record sales

• Japanese invasion of Southeast Asia cuts off supply of shellac, industry turns to vinyl

• Vinyl makes the LP (and albums) possible

A Brief History of Recording

Stereo and High Fidelity• 1930s: speaker systems developed

with separate woofers and tweeters• Multi-track recording becomes

possible• Stereophonic sound• 1950s: high fidelity (hi-fi) enthusiasts

(audiophiles) compared amps, speaker power, and tuning capacity just as today’s computer hobbyists discuss RAM, processor chips, and hard drive size.

A Brief History of Recording

Teenagers reshape the face of pop music• “All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front

Teeth” (1947)• “How Much is that Doggy in the Window

?” Patti Page (early 1950s)• “Crazy Man Crazy” Bill Haley (1953) • In 1954, Haley signed with Decca and

released “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and “Rock Around The Clock.”

Jazz/blues subculture• Jazz

• Charlie Parker• Miles Davis• John Coltrane• Charles Mingus

• Blues• Howlin’ Wolf• Robert Johnson• Bo Diddley• John Lee Hooker

Jack Kerouac: On the Road (1957) Allen Ginsberg

A Brief History of Recording

British Invasion• Beatles• Rolling Stones• Cream• Yardbirds/ New Yardbirds/ Led

Zeppelin• Pink Floyd

A Brief History of Recording

Rap and Hip-Hop• Started as street poetry in the early

1970s• The Sugar Hill Gang• Erick B and Rakim• Dana Dane• RUN-DMC• Public Enemy• De La Soul• N.W.A.

A Brief History of Recording

A Brief History of Recording

A Brief History of Recording

The Format Wars Intensify• Magnetic tape

technology from WWII adapted to consumer needs

• Sony Walkman (1979)• CDs (1983) were $2

cheaper per unit to produce than tapes, but record companies charged more for them

• Minidiscs (late 1990s)

A Brief History of Recording

Music Downloading

• Late 1990s: Burnable CDs• 1999: Northeastern University student Shawn

Fanning develops Napster, launches P2P frenzy• After Napster is shut down others (Limewire,

KaZaA, Morpheus) follow. Napster goes legal in 2004.

• By 2001, downloading and file sharing begin to seriously dip into record industry profits, industry starts suing downloaders, including students

• 2001: Apple introduces iTunes, features playlists and an interface designed for a new product: iPod

• April 2003: iTunes Store introduced, soon becomes world’s largest music retailer

• 2006: Head of RIAA declares illegal song swapping “contained”

A Brief History of Recording

What are the lessons from this?• For the recording industry?• About consumer habits?• For musicians?

Disruptive technologies

Disruptive technologies

Disruptive technologies

Disruptive technologies

Disruptive technologies

Disruptive technologies

Disruptive technologies

Disruptive technologies

Understanding Today’s Recording Industry

The Major Labels: Global Goliaths• Five corporations: Warner, EMI, Sony,

Universal, and Bertelsmann, collect 80 percent of revenues

• 1980s: major labels get out of the business of developing new talent, huge sales expected out of the gate

• The Long Tail

© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

Understanding Today’s Recording Industry

Independents: Developing Talent• Majors acquire successful independents to

develop new ideas and scout new talent• Many independents specialize: jazz,

classical, religious, or rap. • Hundreds of independents share the 20

percent of the market not controlled by the five major labels.

• According to Anderson’s “Long Tail” theory of marketing, there’s room here for new labels to make a profit.

Understanding Today’s Recording Industry

The Players• A&R (artist and repertoire)

• demos• Producers• Arrangers• Lyricists • Artists• Retailers

Understanding Today’s Recording Industry

Royalties and Performance Rights Organizations• There are two types of royalties:

1. Recording-artist royalties2. Songwriter/publisher royalties

• Recording artists earn royalties from the sale of their recordings on CDs, tapes, vinyl, and legal downloads.

• No royalties for radio or TV. Internet radio yet to be settled.

• Songwriters and publishers, however, do earn royalties on radio play and other public performances, as well as on recording sales.

Understanding Today’s Recording Industry

Promotion• reporting stations• 1991: Soundscan• Promoters arrange press coverage,

lobby for awards, feed tidbits to gossip-hungry Web sites, try to place music videos on MTV, BET, CMT and VH1, and try to get songs on movie and television soundtracks, and in television commercials.

Understanding Today’s Recording Industry

Chris Andersen• The Long Tail

Understanding Today’s Recording Industry

Understanding Today’s Recording Industry

Distribution and Sales• Brick-and-mortar• Online distribution

The Audience• Customers are fickle, and less loyal to

individual acts• LP has less influence• Acts get younger and more transient

ControversiesThe Effects

• Powerful-effects model• Minimal-effects model• Mixed-effects model• Cultivation theory• Cumulative-effects theory• Agenda-setting theory• Uses and gratifications theory• Catharsis theory

ControversiesCensorship

• 1990: industry adopts parental warning labels after being pressured by the PMRC

• Wal-Mart, the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer of music, has influence over content and will refuse to sell what it deems inappropriate

• 2003: Clear Channel Communications, the largest owner of radio stations in the U.S., stops playing the music of the Dixie Chicks after a member of the group criticized President George Bush.

Chapter 7

Recordings And The Music Industry: Copyright Battles, Format Wars

Chapter Outline• History• Industry• Controversies