music industry research
TRANSCRIPT
BACKGROUND INFO ON THE MUSIC
INDUSTRY
M&M Productions
TIMELINE FOR THE 1940’S
1940 Production of records halted by World War II and the shortage of shellac,
due to the invasion of South East Asia by the Japanese. The replacement of
the base material was discovered from a plastic resin derivative of petroleum
called vinyl.
David Sarnoff of RCA installed first secret recording devices in the White
House for 11 weeks, from June to October, using the same optical Phonofilm method
used in RKO films.
1941 The quality of the Magnetophone in Germany dramatically improved with
the use of high frequency biasing developed by Weber and Von Braunmuhl at
AEG.
1942 Armed Forces Radio Service created to distribute programs to soldiers
overseas.
1943 The first V-Discs were shipped from the RCA Victor pressing plant in
Camden, New Jersey.
1944 3M Co. (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing) began tape coating
experiments in U.S. under Ralph J. Oace.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1940’S
1945 Working tape recorders brought back to the USA from Germany.
1946 RCA Victor releases the very first commercial vinylite record.
1947 Roy Brown recorded one of the earliest "rock and roll" songs Good
Rocking Tonight on DeLuxe label.
1948 Columbia introduces the first 12-inch 33-1/3 rpm microgroove LP
vinylite record with 23-minute play-time per side it also has a special
turntable to play them on made by Philco.
1949 RCA Victor introduce the 7-inch 45 rpm micro-groove vinyl single
and compatible turn table. Capitol became the first major label to support all
three recording speeds of 78, 45, 33-1/3 rpm.
Todd Storz from the KOWH radio station sets up a Top 40.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1950’S
1950 The improvements in sound quality of the new vinyl format encourage record
companies to embrace the technology, this marks the beginning of the end for the
78rpm shellac disc. RCA Victor issues records on Columbia 12 inch LP format.
1951 Columbia releases records on the RCA 7 inch 45 rpm format.
First Jukebox produced that was able to play 7 inch 45 rpm records.
1952 Alan Freed starts the influential radio show Moondog's Rock and Roll Party.
1953 Elvis Presley made his first recording (a personal disc for himself, not for his
mother's birthday that was in the spring) at the Sun studio of Sam Phillips in
Memphis; the second recording by Elvis at Sun was "That's All Right", released
19th July.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1950’S
1954 Record companies start to deliver 7 inch 45 rpm record singles to radio stations
instead of 78s. Bill Haley releases "Shake, Rattle and Roll" and "Rock Around the
Clock".
1955 BBC begins FM broadcasting.
1956 The Chrysler Imperial in-car turntable 16-2/3 rpm record player with 7-inch
ultramicrogroove records developed by Peter Goldmark - the man who invented the 33-1/3
rpm long playing (LP) record format.
1957 The Recording Industry Association of America chooses the Westrex standard for
stereo records. Stereo vinyl is to became the dominant medium of recorded music.
1958 RCA introduces its first stereo LPs.
1959 The FCC decides the FM stereo broadcast format.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1960’S
1960 Ampex shared VTR patents with Sony and Sony shared
transistorised circuitry with Ampex.
1961 RCA Victor release the compact single 33 - a 7inch playing at 33
1/3 - it didn't last long.
Rupert Neve's introduced the first Valve mixer.
EMI sign The Beatles.
1962 3M introduces Scotch 201/202 "Dynarange," a black oxide low-
noise mastering tape with a 4 dB improvement in s/n ratio over
Scotch 111.
Twist Dance Fever originated by Hank Ballard hits the UK.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1960’S
1963 Bob Moog unveils voltage controlled synthesizer.
Andrew Loog Oldham manages the Rolling Stones and they sign a
recording contract with Decca.
Philips introduces compact cassette, offering free licenses
worldwide. Wollensak stereo open reel.
The Beach Boys contract Sunn Electronics to build the first large
full-range sound system for their rock music concert tour.
1964 Pirate radio stations start broadcasting among them Radio
Caroline.
Record sales in the UK up 60% on 1960.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1960’S
1965 Philips sells first cassette machines.
The Dolby Type A noise reduction system is introduced.
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass tour with a Harry McCune Custom Sound
System.
1966 "River Deep Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner and produced by Phil
Spector with his trademark "Wall of Sound" released.
1967 Birth of Radio 1 using a Pirate Radio format as the offshore broadcasters are
forced to withdraw. The Monterey International Pop Festival becomes the first large rock
music festival, with performers including Jimi Hendrix, The Who & Otis Redding
(who was killed that December). Elektra releases the first electronic music recording:
Morton Subotnick's Silver Apples of the Moon.
Revox converts to solid state. Sgt. Peppers ushers in new age of popular
recording.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1960’S
1968 Bill Hailey and the Comets designs and builds the sound system
for the Woodstock Music Festival.
CBS releases "Switched-On Bach," Walter (Wendy) Carlos's
polyphonic multitracking of Moog's early music synthesizer.
1969 The Woodstock Festival, billed as 3 days of peace and love, takes
place in upstate New York.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1970’S
1970 Ampex introduced the Instavision that it had developed with Toshiba; N.V. Philips
introduced its own videocassette recorder (VCR) format in Europe; AVCO introduced a solid
state compact Cartrivision VCR.
1971 The great consumer format flop; the Quadraphonic sound, launched by Japanese firms.
Klark-Teknik start manufacture of graphic equalizers.
1972 Chrome cassettes and Dolby; first Advent decks.
Denon develops digital recorder and introduces first digitally recorded LP.
1973 Electro-Voice and CBS licensed by Peter Scheiber to produce quadraphonic decoders
using his patented matrixes.
1974 Amek and Soundcraft introduce consoles and Amek also introduces Grandmaster
recording tape that remained the standard for next 15 years.
The Grateful Dead produce the "Wall of Sound" at the San Francisco Cow Palace,
incorporating separate systems for vocals, each of the guitars, piano and drums. Dupont introduces
chromium dioxide (CrO2) cassette tape.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1970’S
1975 Sony Betamax became the first successful home video and then later died a natural
death in the market place.
1976 Digital tape recording begins to take hold in professional audio studios.
The VHS video cassettes was introduced to the market place.
1977 RCA announced in March it would sell VHS with 4-hour tapes.
3M and Denon introduced digital-multitrack automation for the masses including the
MCI JH-50. The Tascam 80-8demo studio becomes reality.
1978 Wollensak makes last open reel recorder marks the end of the amateur reel-to-reel era.
Pioneer developed the LaserDisc that was first used by General Motors to train Cadillac
salesmen.
1979 Sony introduced the TPS-L2 Walkman portable audio cassette player, inaugurating a
new era of personal music listening.
3M introduces the metal-particle cassette tape.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1980’S
1980 Sony introduced first consumer video camcorder.
1981 3M was no longer a market force, leading audiophile engineers declare war against
digital as acquisition system.
The MIDI system is standardised as the universal synthesizer interface.
1982 Philips and Sony introduce compact disc in late 1982 to the buying public and the
American dominance of formats is ended, that same year, Sony acquires MCI.
Sony releases the first CD player, the Model CDP-101.
1983 BT's Fibre-optic cable is used for long-distance digital audio transmission in linking New
York and Washington.
Sony introduced the Beta HiFi VCR with high-quality FM sound.
1984 The Apple Corporation market the Macintosh computer and in that same year sales of
the recorded compact cassettes (audio cassettes) exceeded LP record sales for the first time.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1980’S
1985 Sony introduced the 8-mm format in April; the VHS group, led by JVC, brought out
a compact version of VHS, known as VHS-C, but it only recorded for 20 minutes.
1986 R-DAT recorders are introduced in Japan and Dr. Gunther Theile gave a prescribe
description of a novel stereo "sphere microphone.".
1987 LEF Digidesign markets "Sound Tools," a Macintosh-based digital workstation
using DAT as its source and storage medium.
1988 CD becomes dominant medium.
Super-VHS video format equalled 8-mm in picture quality but not in sound quality.
1989 Sony introduced the Hi8 video format and the Sony CCD-V99 camcorder.
Dolby S brings new generation of inexpensive 24 tracks to home use.
TIMELINE FOR THE 1990’S1990 Dolby proposes a 5-channel surround-sound scheme for home theatre systems, and the write-once
CD-R becomes a commercial reality.
The BT invention of ISDN telephone links are offered for high-end studio use.
1991 Wolfgang Ahnert presents, in a binaural simulation, the first digitally enhanced modeling of an
acoustic space.
1992 The Philips DCC and Sony's MiniDisc, using digital audio data-reduction, are offered to
consumers as record/play hardware and software.
Recordable CD's become commonplace.
1993 In the first extensive use of "distance recording" via ISDN, producer Phil Ramone records the
"Duets" album with Frank Sinatra.
Digital HDTV Grand Alliance in October selected Dolby AC-3 to provide digital surround sound for
the emerging technology of digital television.
1994 Global Big 6 control $30 billion record industry: Philips (owns Polygram, A&M, Mercury, Island),
Sony (owns CBS Records), Matsushita (owns MCA, Geffen), Thorn-EMI (owns Capitol, Virgin), Time
Warner, and Bertelsmann (owns RCA Records).
TIMELINE FOR THE 1990’S
1995 By September, all companies in the DVD consortium agreed to DVD standards.
The first "solid-state" audio recorder, the Nagra ARES-C, is introduced. It is a battery-operated field
unit recording on PCMCIA cards using MPEG-2 audio compression.
1996 Iomega debuts high-capacity "Jazz" and "Zip" drives, useful as removable storage media for hard-disk
recording. DVD players started selling in Japan, and began in 1997 selling in the U.S.
1997 DVD videodiscs and players are introduced. An audio version with 6 channel surround sound is
expected to eventually supplant the CD as the chosen playback medium in the home.
San Diego's MP3.com was founded in November by Michael Robertson.
1998 MP-3 players for downloading MP-3 Audio music from the Internet appeared.
The Winter Olympics open with a performance of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," played and sung by
synchronizing live audio feeds from five continents with an orchestra and conductor at the Olympic
stadium in Nagano, Japan, using satellite and the BT ISDN technology.
1999 The 5 largest record companies in the U.S. controlled 84% of the 755 million albums sold in the U.S. in
1999: 26.3% by Seagram's Universal (owns MCA, Polygram), 16.2% by Sony Music (owns Columbia),
16% by Bertelsmann's BMG (owns RCA Victor), 15.7% by Time Warner's Warner Music, 9.4% by EMI.
M U S I C D I S T R I B U T I O N
Music has gone through many formats of distribution over the years, the
first of which was the vinyl record.
There was a lot of controversy when it came to having to change the
method of distribution to CD’s.
Many record labels we reluctant to pick up the use of CD’s because the
potential for piracy was just too great and companies only agreed to use
CD’s if the technology to create CD’s was kept too high for the average
householder to buy so that piracy would be kept to a minimum. But as the
years went on, so did technology and soon most computers were able to
burn CD’s
THE INTERNET – BLESSING OR CURSE?
The internet is a wonderful thing, we can find all sort of handy
things out at a few strokes of the keyboard
You can go to YouTube and listen to all of your favorite songs in
a instant
However this isn’t such a light hearted situation for the music
industry because most people would rather go to YouTube to
listen to their favorite songs rather than going out and buying
them. In 2003 something amazing happened: iTunes was created
ITUNES
iTunes was released in 2003 and was a piece of software
that allowed one to digitally obtain songs rather than going
out an buying the full album, why would you when you can
download the few songs that you might like rather that
having to buy all the song and you not liking the rest
iTunes has over 435 million accounts and have sold over 6
billions songs since 2003 and is responsible 75% of all digital
song sales in key territories including England and America
MUSIC VIDEOS
First music video – Blues singer Bessie Smith appeared in a short
film ‘Saint Louis Blues’ which featured a dramatized version of the hit
song. This was shown in theatres until 1932.
Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) is one of the songs generally considered to
have been the first music video.
Thriller by Michael Jackson is arguably one of the most famous music
videos of all time. It was a 14 minute video which featured the
performance of the song as well as a screenplay. Thriller is known as being
‘a watershed moment for the music industry’ because of its merging of
filmmaking and music.
HISTORY OF THE MUSIC VIDEO – KEY DATES
1965 The Beatles use promotional films – 10 films to promote album releases, kicks off video promotion.
1981 MTV launched – 24hr broadcast means music videos begin to play a central role in music marketing.
1982 Thriller – Michael Jackson’s most successful and influential video of all time released
1985 VH1 launched – featured softer music & catered to an older demographic, widening the audience of
music videos
1992 Rise of the directors – listed in the credits for the first time, directors such as Goudry and Romanek
launch careers
1995 Scream – the Jackson’s “Scream” is the most expensive music video ever, costing £7 million to
produce
2005 YouTube – allows people to watch videos online. New artists see popularity rise through internet
2005 iTunes opens – allows music videos to be downloaded from the internet. Reaches 1 million
downloads after 20 days.
2010 One billion – Lady Gaga’s music videos views reach one billion views. ‘Poker Face’ sees 373mill
views done.
2010 New Heights – number of music videos viewed online reaches 34 billion with 183 million viewers.
MARKETING & PROMOTION
Publicity
Artists gain publicity from reviews in magazines and
online (Billboard, NME etc.)
Also gain publicity from word of mouth and
recommendations (particularly for smaller bands/artists)
Word of mouth quoted as being “still the best
advertising a band can get”
ADVERTISING
Artists use different advertising methods,
depending on their popularity:
Internet advertising e.g. Facebook, YouTube ads
Television adverts – for albums or commercial
products e.g. Professor Green – Relentless
Radio adverts
Billboards
RETAIL/DISTRIBUTION
CDs can still be bought in a variety of stores e.g.
HMV, supermarkets
Albums/singles available to buy on iTunes (more
and more customers purchasing select tracks as
opposed to an entire album)
Internet distribution – prevents distribution costs,
piracy/illegal downloads (publicity for artists/less
revenue gained by artists)
MERCHANDISING
Accounts for an ever-growing percentage of a
band’s income due to illegal downloads/decreasing
record sales
Merchandising – t-shirts, posters, hats, jewellery
etc
Synergy – artists creating songs specifically for
films/games
TOURING
Touring is the major source of income for most
artists
In most cases touring is used to promote a new
album
Gives artists a chance to connect and give back to
the fans
Amount of tours also depends on popularity of
band – mainstream artists don’t rely on touring as
much as smaller artists who find touring their main
source of income.
FAN BASE
Artists need a solid fan base to target their music towards
Some artists have developed solid cult-like fan bases e.g.
30 Seconds to Mars “ The Echelon”
Some artists hold meets with fans
Use the internet to connect with fans (fan pages, Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, blogs etc.)
Some artists get fans involved with albums e.g. voting for
album/single titles