rp2003 - repeat - alex flood - final draft

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Have Computers Become Such A Major Part Of Music Production That Soon

Commercial Studios Will Be A Thing Of The Past?

The total computer music market went from just under $140 million in sales in 1999

to almost a half billion dollars in 2008, according to NAMM, the trade group for music

retailers and manufacturers.1 Computers have never been as accessible and affordable as

they are today. They give anyone the power to setup a recording studio at home for a

fraction of the price that it costs to rent a high end one. Making music isn’t just confined to

your home. Advances in technology have giving us laptops, the iPad, and even mobile

phones for producing music on the go. All of these new technologies have left big studios

trailing behind. Only a handful of commercial studios are striving in business while many

have closed down. Is this the end for commercial recording studios?

The aim of this essay is to investigate the relationship between music production

and technology. It intends to outline the facts of creating music today while also discussing

music productions relationship to technology. A brief history of music production, and how

technology has aided in it’s advances will be conveyed. Finally, the position of record

companies and commercial studios will be explored.

The history of recording music actually dates back to the 1800’s with Thomas

Edison and his phonograph. The phonograph was initially intended to improve the

telephone. The evolution of the recording studio was quite slow in terms of advances of

technology. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that big commercial studios began to emerge. This is

all thanks to the multi-track recorder which allowed instruments to be recorded separately

1 “Recording studios are being left out of the mix”, Los Angeles Times, 13 October 2009,

small business sec



in different stems. At this point technology began to evolve at an enormous rate. Effects

such as reverb and echo were released in the 1960’s, followed by tapes in the 1970’s, with

CD’s and computers in the 1900’s, and finally Mp3’s in 2000. Technology in the music

industry progressed quicker in 50 years than it had in over 150 years. 2.

In the eighties and nineties commercial studios were seen as being very exclusive

and if anyone wanted to record their songs, they needed money. The hours were extremely

long, sometimes taking years to finish an album, costing up into the millions of euro.

Anyone wanting to make a career in the business would have start at the bottom. People

would first be errand boys for the studio, making coffee, going across to the shop for

cigarettes. Eventually they would become assistant engineer, followed by house engineer,

and after many years, depending on efficiency, studio owner.

Today, the industry has a completely new standard. Most music producers will have

a home setup. Their studio can range from a single computer to a 48 channel mixing desk.

Many producers will rent a studio for recording purposes and will take their work home.

The home studio gives them the freedom to mix, and edit a song on their own time while

saving the client money. This, in turn, will create more job opportunities for the producer,

while taking business away from the commercial studios.

Computers themselves are at the heart of most recording studios, whether it be a

home or commercial one. The first commercial computer, the “701” by IBM was created in

2“When to record with a studio”,

http://www.gcmstudio.com/studiovshome/studiovshome.html





1953. It took over ten years for all the parts to be fully developed. It wasn’t until 1975 that

the first personal computer was introduced. Over the next few yeas the computers explode

onto the american scene. At this point Microsoft and Apple began to be formed. From 1977

personal computers were available to buy in stores. From this point on computer

companies strive to make computers smaller and more efficient.

However, it wasn’t until the 2000’s that computers began to become useful for a

music producer. At this point the laptop was widely available and affordable. Most families

have a computer at home, allowing further access for anyone wanting to start producing

music. Now, in 2011 computers have reached an all time high. Every household has a

computer of some description. Laptops have up to 9 hours battery life with a starting price

of €350. New technology such as the iPad and iPhone have been developed, giving

access to thousands of music making apps. Nobody actually knows what is the future for

computers and technology. Some people believe that future computers will run off light,

others feel that DNA computers will be the future. Judging by the rate of computer growth,

we don’t have long to find out what will be the next big thing.3

In the authors opinion, commercial recording studios seem to be a thing of the past.

With computers and technology becoming so advanced and affordable, most people

realise that it is much cheaper to set up a home studio rather that rent a commercial one.

Any room in a house can be turned into a home studio, and with all the tutorials on the

internet, it has never been easier. The beauty of a home studio is that you can customise it

3 “Computers of tomorrow”, Future Computers,

http://www.futureforall.org/computers/computers.htm.

http://www.futureforall.org/computers/computers.htm

http://www.futureforall.org/computers/computers.htm



to suit your needs. This can greatly improve your workflow as you are familiar with all the

equipment. The price of a home studio can range from €500 to €500,000 depending on the

gear you decide to purchase. Another advantage to a home setup is that you can add to

the studio whenever you please.

It is a fact that anyone with a computer can make music. This is probably the

biggest difference in recording music today. Technology has allowed us to be more flexible

when it comes to creating music. There is no need for the long hours anymore as you can

work at home on your time. Also, software has contributed to this factor. The use of

commercial studios has become quite limited. As the economic situation is very bad,

people are trying to save money any way they can. Many producers will only book a big

studio for recording drums and vocals, and record all the other instruments at their home

studio. This makes it much cheaper for the artist. In fact, many artists see this today and

act as their own producer. In only a short few years, and with the aid of technology the

music industry has changed so much.

Today, any music producer can produce, mix, master a track, and have it up on

iTunes in 24 hours. The processes have not changed, but with technology they are greatly

improved. Daw’s (Digital Audio Workstations) are used for creating music. In recent times,

they have become extremely flexible and powerful. Many producers use them to create

entire tracks, from start to finish. Recently Daw’s were launched online. This means that all

you need is an internet connection to create music. Everything you do is automatically

saved on the internet, meaning that your hard drive isn’t clustered with music.4

4 “Online Daw’s: State of the art 2011”, feature sec, pg 36, Vol 242, Future Music.



Laptops are now a necessity for the majority of people today, with music producers

being no exception. Technology is always advancing which has contributed to the success

of the laptop. Any home music producer can run there studio from a basic €400 laptop.

This meaning we now have more music producers then ever before. Its not only home

users working from laptop, but professionals as well. Artists dominating the charts such as

Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta, and Laidback Luke all produce from a laptop. Now

we ask the vital question, “What about the commercial studios?”

As technology grows so does the ways in which we create music. Only a few years

ago laptops were seen as the future for creating music due to their portability. Now,

however, making music on the go has become even easier. The Apple Ipad and Iphone

are rapidly creating a name for themselves in the music industry. There are thousands of

Apps available for creating music, including huge names like GarageBand and Cubase. 5

In 2010, The Gorillaz wrote and produced an entire album just using the Ipad. The

group used many different Apps to write the music, completing the album in just 32 days,

with an average of one day to finish a track. The album was recorded all over America and

Canada during a tour showing the utter portability that technology is contributing to music

production. In coalition with the album release, a Gorillaz App was released for creating

music.

The internet is a major contribution to the transition from commercial studios to

home, computer based ones. It is possibly the most important tool for a producer due to its

5 “Over 425,000 ways to make the iPhone even better”, http://www.apple.com/iphone/apps-

for-iphone.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/apps-for-iphone







vast capabilities. The first being Forums, a place on the internet where anyone can upload

their tracks or ideas and get feedback and help from other producers. This is quite useful

for people only starting to make music, with the majority using a laptop or home computer.

The most used Forum is by a music producer/Dj “Laidback Luke”. This is because he

personally listens to music uploaded to the Forum and gives feedback himself. “Afrojack”,

one of the biggest dance producers was found on “Laidback Luke’s” Forum.

The distribution of music online is the biggest form of music sharing ever. It is a fact

that CD sales have been dropping dramatically each year. CD sales have fallen by $8.3

billion between the years 1999 and 2009.6 However, digital sales are rising considerably.

Itunes is the biggest online sales store in the world with its sales hitting 10 billion in 2010.

iTunes were kind enough to give the person who purchased the tenth billion song a

$10,000 gift card. 7 Technically anyone can release their music on iTunes, so in theory a

producer could write, produce, master, and release a track in a day. This is a major jump

from a few years ago where it could take years to release your music.

In terms of producing and making music, the internet is very important. Computer

producers can simply browse thousands of plugins, daw’s, and software. They can then be

downloaded by a click of your mouse. This greatly speeds up work processes and allows

the producer to be more versatile than before. A magazine called, “Computer Music”

actually lets the reader download their exclusive daw and plugins for free.

6 “Music’s lost decade: Sales cut in half”, CNN Money, Business News,http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/02/news/companies/napster_music_industry.7 “10 billion songs downloaded from iTunes. And counting”, http://www.apple.com/itunes/10-billion-song-

countdown/

http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/02/news/companies/napster_music_industry

http://www.apple.com/itunes/10-billion-song-countdown/


http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/02/news/companies/napster_music_industry





“Youtube” has become one of the most viewed sites, with millions visiting it each

day. It is a great learning tool for amateur and professional producers. There are

thousands of tutorials on music production. “Youtube” has also given birth to pop

sensations like Justin Bieber, and Rebecca Black. It is a fantastic tool for self promotion.

Social sites like “Facebook” and “Twitter” have created a whole new dimension for

artists to connect with their fans. Many artists today are using “Facebook” as their official

website. Again, it is another free tool for the producer and also improves the workflow. With

these sites you can upload a brand new track right after its finished and get feedback from

fans instantaneously.

Producing music live is becoming much more popular, all thanks to laptops. As

technology flourishes, dj’s take advantage. Many dj’s keep their entire music library on

their laptop and play straight from the laptop. That is only the basis of what technology

allows the producer to do live. Paul Van Dyk is one of the worlds biggest djs. A few years

ago he decided to go digital. This choice gave him the power to create music in realtime to

the audience. Paul uses two laptops, one with his music library, and the other with a daw

running, connected to a midi keyboard. This allows him to remix live. “I could play your

favorite tune and it sounds completely different—different bass line, different drums,” he says, “but

it would sound so much better at that particular moment of the set”. In an interview, paul reveals

that some of the remixes he does live, he releases as an official track remix.

Downloading music illegally is a trend that continues to upset artists and

producers. It all started in the early 2000’s with file sharing sites such as “Bearshare” and

“Limewire”. These sites allow people access to millions of songs free of charge. Originally



record companies and artists attempted to stop the downloading, spending millions of

dollars defending their music. Metallica are a note worthy band who challenged illegal

online music download sites. In 2000, the band filed a lawsuit against Napster (an online

music downloading program). Later that year, rapper and producer, Dr. Dre also brought

Napster to court. After a year, both court cases were settled with the shutdown of Napster.

8. However, this is only one of thousands of illegal downloading sites. In this authors

opinion, it would appear as if that artists and producers have given up the fight.

This illegal downloading has caused many studios to close down and forced others

to rethink their businesses altogether. Many studios were required to lower their prices to

make business, while record labels have lowered their budget. Other studios have added

other services such as, on location recording, and sound to video. The most successful

approach to this situation has been home recording studios. A lot of studio owners are

working in collaboration with home studio owners while others are selling their studios and

setting up at home.9 However, some studio owners keep great rapport with their clients

meaning they have a continuous flow of business. Freddy Fletcher, owner of Arlyn

Recording Studio in Austin, Texas, states that “We've had some fairly longstanding clients,

and I feel like for the most part, if people from this area are going to do records with a

budget, we get a lot of that”.

With all this new technology, are we, as producers, becoming lazy when it comes to

creating music? The software we have now is extremely powerful and allows anyone with

8 “Napster shut down”, BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/852283.stm

9 “The record industry fights its corner in the download age”, music blog, guardian.co.uk,http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/mar/12/behind-the-music-record-industry-

ifpi-report

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/852283.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/mar/12/behind-the-music-record-industry-ifpi-report


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/852283.stm





basic computer skills to make a track. “Garageband” is a music creation software that

comes standard on all Mac computers. It is also available on the iPad and iPhone. This

software is a basic Daw that has most capabilities of a €500 one. You can make beats,

record instruments, edit audio, and use loops. Fall Out Boy and Nadine Coyle used it when

writing their latest albums. There are many complaints on blogs of amateur producers

simply using pre made loops to make a track and placing it on Myspace. Although Apples

Loops are royalty free, it can be seen as cheating using the loops without editing them first.

Another example of using Apple Loops is Rihanna’s “Umbrella”. The whole song is based

on a drum loop. This leaves us with the question, “If the pro’s do it, why can’t we?”.

The future of the music industry started when CD’s were introduced. CD’s were the

first digitally encoded audio format, meaning that without CD’s, we wouldn’t have our Mp3

players. The general thoughts on music production for the future are digital. CD’s will soon

be discontinued, leaving internet downloads as the main source of music distribution.10

Some people believe that music production programs will be web-based. This eliminates

the need for huge hard drives. Other thoughts include more mobile ideas such as the Ipad

and other smaller portable devices. In terms of music formats, Mp3 appears to be holding

strong. It is an extremely compressed format and will not clutter your hard drive. Another

view on audio formats is simply streaming songs from the internet, assuming that internet

will be available to everyone and everywhere at reasonable prices.

“In the last 10 years we have presided over the greatest destruction in value in the

history of the music industry. Assuming we can stabilise things and restore growth, it

10 “What is the future of music online?”, BBC News,

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8315873.stm.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8315873.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8315873.stm



shouldn’t be that difficult to preside over the greatest increase in value in the history of the

recorded music industry.” A quote from Sean Parker, founder of Facebook and Napster.

This author completely agrees with this statement. However, thought process‘ must be

changed. We live in the age of technology, and this technology is rapidly evolving. Sadly,

the “Old way” of producing music is nearly extinct. We will no longer spend hours in a big

studio getting everything perfect. Unless we embrace this technology and use it to our

advantage there is no hope for the music industry. The advances in technology have given

many artists and producers the opportunity to make a successful career for themselves

that would not be possible only a few years ago. Computers are here to stay, and we must

adapt.



Bibliography

http://www.thecmuwebsite.com/article/sean-parker-optimistic-about-the-music-businesss-

future/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-mccready/the-future-of-the-music-i_b_173481.html

http://thefall.gorillaz.com /

http://www.apple.com/mac/

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

http://www.recordingmag.com/blogs/post/61.html

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/recording-studio1.htm

http://www.illegalmusicdownloading.com /

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http://homemusicrecording.com /

http://yourhomestudio.com /

http://www.computersciencelab.com/ComputerHistory/History.htm

http://www.djforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227288

http://images.apple.com/chfr/logicstudio/in-action/paulvandyk/

http://www.thecmuwebsite.com/article/sean-parker-optimistic-about-the-music-businesss-future/



http://thefall.gorillaz.com/






http://www.illegalmusicdownloading.com/


http://homemusicrecording.com/

http://yourhomestudio.com/







http://thefall.gorillaz.com/






http://www.illegalmusicdownloading.com/


http://homemusicrecording.com/

http://yourhomestudio.com/






http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/emea/segments/splitter_page1?

c=ie&l=en&s=gen&&ST=dell&dgc=ST&cid=41215&lid=1069576&acd=124567429520561

http://musicians.about.com/od/ah/g/digitaldist.htm

“Producing music with a computer” by Peter Schlossnagel

“Secrets of house music production” by Sample Music

“How to Dj (Properly)” by Frank Broughton & Bill Brewster

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/emea/segments/splitter_page1?c=ie&l=en&s=gen&&ST=dell&dgc=ST&cid=41215&lid=1069576&acd=124567429520561








RP2003 - Research Project

by

Alex Flood

2nd year

rp2003 - repeat - alex flood - final draft

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