Just wanted to write a quick final post for this blog. I am currently working on a summary paper which will be uploaded to the blog as a new page when it is finished in the next couple of weeks.
I have learned a lot from conducting this project, and have caught a fascinating view into economic concepts being applied to real world problems. Recorded music is something that I am an avid follower of, and delving into the process of preservation, production, and public release has really provided me a lot of insight into an industry where I have until now played the role of relatively ignorant consumer. The scope of applications of work I was doing was also quit unexpected; I never realized how much overlap there is between the various copyright based medium industries (print, music, film, art). There is much more work that can be done on this subject and I sincerely hope that someone will be able to pick up where I left off. Always more data to gather, and new lessons to learn. Being able to work on a relevant and personally intriguing topic as my senior cumulative project has been very rewarding, and I feel as though I have gained a much better conception of applications of economic topics as a result.
Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Insight from Ebay
Since I posted about it awhile back, I've been working on cross-checking the albums I've collected as missing from Spotify with albums (or CDs) being sold on Ebay. This process is designed to give me a better idea of whether albums are truly missing (i.e. not available for purchase or streaming by consumers) or rather have just been restricted from streaming services because of artist or label wishes.
I've been surprised to find that there are more albums completely unavailable than I originally thought. Even with the limited number of artists and albums I have documented thus far, nearly half of the flagged missing albums are also not available in digital or even vinyl form on Ebay. There is always the possibility that individual collectors are holding these albums until they hit an optimal value at which point they will decide to put them on the market,and there is also the possibility that they are being saved as parts to priceless collections in which case the time it will take for them to become publicly available will be even longer. A third option is that the records have legitimately become obsolete and have been permanently lost, but statistically this is the least likely case.
Something I noticed about the absent from Spotify albums, that were available on Ebay was that there was a wide range of price per album. This could easily serve as a future indicator for rarity, or rather scarcity of a specific album. Excluding albums with uniqueness factors like red vinyl instead of black, or signatures by the artist, price variation as well as number of sellers can help to separate the albums at risk of extinction from those that are popular enough to have multiple sellers at relatively low prices despite not being available for streaming. It comes down to simple supply and demand, when supply is low and there is demand, prices will rise. The most expensive album I've encountered thus far was $300. To me that seems like a high price to pay, but I'm sure there will be more albums that I'll come across that are listed at even higher prices. Album collectors or possessors stand to gain the most from this so there is a tendency to hold onto their scarce possessions, at least until the market conditions are apt for selling rare, vintage folk albums. In that case, this hole in the collection I've been talking about may actually be at least partially superficial, controlled by album owners as well as labels and artists. The key for them is making sure the work isn't lost completely while trying to exact their profits. I'd say that's the biggest risk involved, especially if its a pattern that's been repeated by many people.
I've been surprised to find that there are more albums completely unavailable than I originally thought. Even with the limited number of artists and albums I have documented thus far, nearly half of the flagged missing albums are also not available in digital or even vinyl form on Ebay. There is always the possibility that individual collectors are holding these albums until they hit an optimal value at which point they will decide to put them on the market,and there is also the possibility that they are being saved as parts to priceless collections in which case the time it will take for them to become publicly available will be even longer. A third option is that the records have legitimately become obsolete and have been permanently lost, but statistically this is the least likely case.
Something I noticed about the absent from Spotify albums, that were available on Ebay was that there was a wide range of price per album. This could easily serve as a future indicator for rarity, or rather scarcity of a specific album. Excluding albums with uniqueness factors like red vinyl instead of black, or signatures by the artist, price variation as well as number of sellers can help to separate the albums at risk of extinction from those that are popular enough to have multiple sellers at relatively low prices despite not being available for streaming. It comes down to simple supply and demand, when supply is low and there is demand, prices will rise. The most expensive album I've encountered thus far was $300. To me that seems like a high price to pay, but I'm sure there will be more albums that I'll come across that are listed at even higher prices. Album collectors or possessors stand to gain the most from this so there is a tendency to hold onto their scarce possessions, at least until the market conditions are apt for selling rare, vintage folk albums. In that case, this hole in the collection I've been talking about may actually be at least partially superficial, controlled by album owners as well as labels and artists. The key for them is making sure the work isn't lost completely while trying to exact their profits. I'd say that's the biggest risk involved, especially if its a pattern that's been repeated by many people.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Evolution of Music Technology
I thought this week I'd do a focused post on the evolution of music technology, also called audio format, over the last century. Technological change has been the main driving force in the evolution of the composition of today's music collection. Its the force that has put many mid-century recordings into obsolescence, and has led to a larger than normal collection of music from the last 10 years or so due to the ease at current recording technology. Compounded with current copyright law, creative work to be kept out of public domain for creators life plus 70 years, the technological shift has led to the extinction of many songs and albums dating from mid-century to present. Therefore it is important to map the trajectory of music technology during this time frame.
Thomas Edison accidentally created the first recording of the human voice while experimenting with a new telegraph device in 1877 and by the end of the year was able to create a full recording of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," using the first functioning phonograph.
By 1885 Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter produced competition for Edison's phonograph which they called the "graphophone." It functioned in very much the same way as Edison's recording machine.
The gramophone was invented by Emile Berliner in 1888 and improved upon the earlier recording machines by using a disc as the recording medium, rather than the cylinder that had been used prior. It could hold up to 2 minutes of recorded sound. The discs were made out of vulcanized rubber.
The Columbia Phonograph Company, one of about 30 companies competing in the market at the time, found business success in collaboration between fairgrounds and phonograph leasing. This led to the creation of nickel jukeboxes. With this competitive advantage in business strategy, the Columbia Graphophone Company (changed name, same company), became the only company in the market to turn a profit during the 1890s.
During the 1900s due to the advent of mass production techniques for recorded and automatic music, copyright becomes a relevant question. The industry was now comprised of various iterations of the graphophone. gramophone, and new to the stage player piano. The supreme court decided that copyright protection applied only to music that could be read by the human eye.
In 1901 a new type of disc technology was released call the 78. Its name came from its rotational speed, and it is 10 inches in diameter. The 78 lasted as a format until 1974, and by 1910 there were new disc sizes introduced to the market as well. In 1906 the "Victrola" was rolled out by the Victor Talking Machine Company. It provided the added convenience of being a music player that could fit within the home. It was the best selling record player of its time.
The Radio Corporation of America began mass producing commercial radios during the 1920s which had lots of negative ramifications in the records industry.
1925 saw the introduction of electrical amplification of sound and the first electrically recorded discs went on sale. The technology was conceived by Bell Telephone Laboratories, and with the new higher quality recordings, record sales rebounded.
Radio Corporation of America bought up Victor in 1928, forming RCA Victor. But with the 1929 crash electronic leisure items such as the "Victor" or radio became luxury goods and out of financial reach of many consumers.
In 1933 FM radio was discovered, offering higher quality transmission with less static.
The fragility of the original material of records, shellac, is discovered in attempts to ship records internationally to troops, so in 1943 polyvinyl, PVC, most commonly known as "vinyl" is adopted as material of choice for future records.
By 1964 the cassette tape became the cheaper option compared to vinyl with the capacity to store 30 minutes of recording.
The cassette tape was expanded on through the advent of the 8-track tape cartridge. It was unique in that is was being incorporated into Ford's cars in 1966. However, its higher quality was outdone by the convenience and versatility of other recording mediums and it became obsolete rather quickly.
In the 1980s Philips and Sony collaborated to bring about an improved audio format called the CD. Consumer replaced vinyl collections with the more compact and uniform CDs, and in 3 years time one million CD players were sold.
1990 saw the introduction of today's main audio disruptive product, the MP3. It compressed digital audio files by a factor of 12 so that they could easily be sent from computer to computer while maintaining the same quality.
During the early 1990s, there were numerous disagreements over how to handle copyright with the introduction of the new audio technologies. The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 required the creators of digital recorders to pay 2% royalties to copyright holders as compensation for ensuing piracy.
1995 saw the launch of the first streaming audio service by the company RealAudio. The initial drawback was poor audio quality of this transmission mode.
In 1999 the first music sharing network, called Napster, was debuted. Due to various copyright suits, Napster shut down service in 2001.
Apple picked up the market in 2003 with the release of iTunes, which is to date the most successful online music store.
Information from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/inside/cron.html
Thomas Edison accidentally created the first recording of the human voice while experimenting with a new telegraph device in 1877 and by the end of the year was able to create a full recording of "Mary Had a Little Lamb," using the first functioning phonograph.
By 1885 Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter produced competition for Edison's phonograph which they called the "graphophone." It functioned in very much the same way as Edison's recording machine.
The gramophone was invented by Emile Berliner in 1888 and improved upon the earlier recording machines by using a disc as the recording medium, rather than the cylinder that had been used prior. It could hold up to 2 minutes of recorded sound. The discs were made out of vulcanized rubber.
The Columbia Phonograph Company, one of about 30 companies competing in the market at the time, found business success in collaboration between fairgrounds and phonograph leasing. This led to the creation of nickel jukeboxes. With this competitive advantage in business strategy, the Columbia Graphophone Company (changed name, same company), became the only company in the market to turn a profit during the 1890s.
During the 1900s due to the advent of mass production techniques for recorded and automatic music, copyright becomes a relevant question. The industry was now comprised of various iterations of the graphophone. gramophone, and new to the stage player piano. The supreme court decided that copyright protection applied only to music that could be read by the human eye.
In 1901 a new type of disc technology was released call the 78. Its name came from its rotational speed, and it is 10 inches in diameter. The 78 lasted as a format until 1974, and by 1910 there were new disc sizes introduced to the market as well. In 1906 the "Victrola" was rolled out by the Victor Talking Machine Company. It provided the added convenience of being a music player that could fit within the home. It was the best selling record player of its time.
The Radio Corporation of America began mass producing commercial radios during the 1920s which had lots of negative ramifications in the records industry.
1925 saw the introduction of electrical amplification of sound and the first electrically recorded discs went on sale. The technology was conceived by Bell Telephone Laboratories, and with the new higher quality recordings, record sales rebounded.
Radio Corporation of America bought up Victor in 1928, forming RCA Victor. But with the 1929 crash electronic leisure items such as the "Victor" or radio became luxury goods and out of financial reach of many consumers.
In 1933 FM radio was discovered, offering higher quality transmission with less static.
The fragility of the original material of records, shellac, is discovered in attempts to ship records internationally to troops, so in 1943 polyvinyl, PVC, most commonly known as "vinyl" is adopted as material of choice for future records.
By 1964 the cassette tape became the cheaper option compared to vinyl with the capacity to store 30 minutes of recording.
The cassette tape was expanded on through the advent of the 8-track tape cartridge. It was unique in that is was being incorporated into Ford's cars in 1966. However, its higher quality was outdone by the convenience and versatility of other recording mediums and it became obsolete rather quickly.
In the 1980s Philips and Sony collaborated to bring about an improved audio format called the CD. Consumer replaced vinyl collections with the more compact and uniform CDs, and in 3 years time one million CD players were sold.
1990 saw the introduction of today's main audio disruptive product, the MP3. It compressed digital audio files by a factor of 12 so that they could easily be sent from computer to computer while maintaining the same quality.
During the early 1990s, there were numerous disagreements over how to handle copyright with the introduction of the new audio technologies. The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 required the creators of digital recorders to pay 2% royalties to copyright holders as compensation for ensuing piracy.
1995 saw the launch of the first streaming audio service by the company RealAudio. The initial drawback was poor audio quality of this transmission mode.
In 1999 the first music sharing network, called Napster, was debuted. Due to various copyright suits, Napster shut down service in 2001.
Apple picked up the market in 2003 with the release of iTunes, which is to date the most successful online music store.
Information from: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/music/inside/cron.html
Thursday, April 10, 2014
More Label Profiles
A couple of weeks ago I did a post highlighting some of the labels I saw popping up in my resource. The exercise proved useful and provided some valuable insight, so I'll be posting about some more tonight. The two I've looked into are Verve and Arhoolie.
Verve Records was founded by jazz enthusiast Norman Granz in 1955 in order to consolidate his previous recording activities (Clef and Norgan Records) and even more importantly to promote the work of artist Ella Fitzgerald whom he managed through most of her career. His first record released on the label in 1956 was a Fitzgerald and did very well considering Fitzgerald's already large audience. Granz helped to change the image of jazz, and Granz made an astute observation when he noticed that box office and record sales seem to go hand in hand. With high profitability and many successful artists, Granz sold the label off to MGM for $2.5 million in 1960. This seems to have been less a move of desperation, and more of a chance to make some serious profit from a successful business, much in the fashion of today's acquisitions (http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/27/verve-records-jazz-norman-granz). the label has changed hands more times since then, and is currently in the hands of David Foster. I found a complete listing for all over Verve's vinyl records which could help to further document what content has been digitized and what hasn't, as an expansion on what's to be found in the Folkways collection (http://www.jazzdisco.org/verve-records/). It appears to be a catalog full of useful label information.
Arhoolie Records is a small record company that was formed by Chris Strachwitz in 1960. The first album released under the label was Mance Lipscomb, a Texas folk singer (and one of the new additions to the National Recording Registry, which I posted about last week), and the label was founded as a musical niche for "down home blues," like Lipscomb. In that sense, unlike some of the other labels I've looked at, namely Columbia and Verve, who cater much more so to big name acts, Arhoolie was more of a Folkways style label looking to work with smaller scale artists. Unlike all the other labels I have researched thus far, Arhoolie has never changed hands and is still run by the same man who founded it. It actually recently celebrated its 50th anniversary (http://www.npr.org/2013/03/16/174452880/arhoolie-records-50-years-of-digging-for-down-home-music). The label has maintained its goal of producing American root's music, and as such seems interested in the concept of cultural preservation through music. Strachwitz has continued to produce music because it is what he loves, and his story sounds in some ways similar to that of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways.
Verve Records was founded by jazz enthusiast Norman Granz in 1955 in order to consolidate his previous recording activities (Clef and Norgan Records) and even more importantly to promote the work of artist Ella Fitzgerald whom he managed through most of her career. His first record released on the label in 1956 was a Fitzgerald and did very well considering Fitzgerald's already large audience. Granz helped to change the image of jazz, and Granz made an astute observation when he noticed that box office and record sales seem to go hand in hand. With high profitability and many successful artists, Granz sold the label off to MGM for $2.5 million in 1960. This seems to have been less a move of desperation, and more of a chance to make some serious profit from a successful business, much in the fashion of today's acquisitions (http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/27/verve-records-jazz-norman-granz). the label has changed hands more times since then, and is currently in the hands of David Foster. I found a complete listing for all over Verve's vinyl records which could help to further document what content has been digitized and what hasn't, as an expansion on what's to be found in the Folkways collection (http://www.jazzdisco.org/verve-records/). It appears to be a catalog full of useful label information.
Arhoolie Records is a small record company that was formed by Chris Strachwitz in 1960. The first album released under the label was Mance Lipscomb, a Texas folk singer (and one of the new additions to the National Recording Registry, which I posted about last week), and the label was founded as a musical niche for "down home blues," like Lipscomb. In that sense, unlike some of the other labels I've looked at, namely Columbia and Verve, who cater much more so to big name acts, Arhoolie was more of a Folkways style label looking to work with smaller scale artists. Unlike all the other labels I have researched thus far, Arhoolie has never changed hands and is still run by the same man who founded it. It actually recently celebrated its 50th anniversary (http://www.npr.org/2013/03/16/174452880/arhoolie-records-50-years-of-digging-for-down-home-music). The label has maintained its goal of producing American root's music, and as such seems interested in the concept of cultural preservation through music. Strachwitz has continued to produce music because it is what he loves, and his story sounds in some ways similar to that of Moses Asch, founder of Folkways.
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Interesting Articles
I find it interesting that since beginning work on this project, in learning about the history of folk music and the issues with music recording preservation as well as keeping old media up to date, I seem to continually be coming across related stories in the news. A couple I came across in the last week seemed particularly interesting and relevant to the questions I'm asking so I'll be devoting a post to talking about them.
The first one I found on NPR. It was really the article title that caught my attention, especially since it sounded a lot like the title of this blog. Published on March 23, 2014, Lost Album Gives Voice To A Johnny Cash In Recovery really offers some insight into the micro side of recording, and album preservation, a side I haven't much explored yet. The piece talks about recordings Johnny Cash, a rock star rather than folk artist, made during the time period I've been studying. The recently uncovered recording, found by Cash's son while he was cleaning out the Cash-Carter house, was made during a low point in the rock star's career and had been for the most part forgotten about. This album was "lost" right around the time Cash was famously dropped from Columbia Records, a label I discussed in my last blog post. While in this case, it wasn't a business change that caused the album to fall through the cracks, a change in the label Cash was associated with was what allowed the album to seemingly disappear. At the time it would have been released, this album wouldn't have been considered anything special. Cash guitarist Marty Stuart remembered the recording sessions for the album as, "Pretty good songs, pretty good performances - but no magic" (NPR). Flash forward to present day. Cash has now been dead for more than 10 years, and this lost album has new value, not so much because of the music made but the story it helps to tell. All these years later, an album like this now has the added value of cultural significance. In the case of this album, many of the songs were written and recorded right after Cash came out of rehab. A detail which wouldn't have been very intriguing back in the day, now offers new insight into Johnny Cash the man as fans look back on his life. John Carter Cash, the son who found the album speaks to this when he says, "Why not let the light endure? Yes, this cool image whatever brings people in, and it's part of who he was. I still haven't figured everything out about my dad and I probably never will. And that darkness, that's truth. But that's not the full picture" (NPR). This sort of posthumous intrigue, especially with celebrities, seems to be the strongest argument for digitizing as much material as we can. The story is the same no matter the genre of music, and if we're talking telling the story of history, there is no better way.
The second story I came across was a CBS Sunday Morning piece about new recordings being added to the National Recording Registry. Latest Additions to the National Recording Registry caught my eye as I didn't know that such a thing existed. This registry is separate from the Smithsonian music collection I've been looking at and was explicitly created to ensure that pertinent cultural recordings, from a variety of music genres and settings (one of the new adds this year is baseball players talking about baseball). There are also Broadway recordings, radio/talk show recordings, and pre-20th century recordings going into the registry. The cool thing about this national registry is not only are the chosen recordings digitized, but with further technological innovation that will inevitably surpass what we currently use, will also be updated so as to always be preserved. There was a new folk genre add this year, Mance Lipscomb's album "Texas Sharecropper and Songster," included because of the cultural significance of Lipscomb's perspective as the son of a former slave and a Native American. In going to the National Recording Registry's website through the Library of Congress I found out that the registry was only begun in 2002 which makes it a little more than 10 years old. This method for preservation is one approach to cultural preservation, low volume but high significance. The question is why some recordings are deemed more important than others, and the possibility that some could be overlooked entirely. I will make a note of any of my Folkways records (if any) that appear on the registry, and it will be interesting to see what gets added in years to come.
The first one I found on NPR. It was really the article title that caught my attention, especially since it sounded a lot like the title of this blog. Published on March 23, 2014, Lost Album Gives Voice To A Johnny Cash In Recovery really offers some insight into the micro side of recording, and album preservation, a side I haven't much explored yet. The piece talks about recordings Johnny Cash, a rock star rather than folk artist, made during the time period I've been studying. The recently uncovered recording, found by Cash's son while he was cleaning out the Cash-Carter house, was made during a low point in the rock star's career and had been for the most part forgotten about. This album was "lost" right around the time Cash was famously dropped from Columbia Records, a label I discussed in my last blog post. While in this case, it wasn't a business change that caused the album to fall through the cracks, a change in the label Cash was associated with was what allowed the album to seemingly disappear. At the time it would have been released, this album wouldn't have been considered anything special. Cash guitarist Marty Stuart remembered the recording sessions for the album as, "Pretty good songs, pretty good performances - but no magic" (NPR). Flash forward to present day. Cash has now been dead for more than 10 years, and this lost album has new value, not so much because of the music made but the story it helps to tell. All these years later, an album like this now has the added value of cultural significance. In the case of this album, many of the songs were written and recorded right after Cash came out of rehab. A detail which wouldn't have been very intriguing back in the day, now offers new insight into Johnny Cash the man as fans look back on his life. John Carter Cash, the son who found the album speaks to this when he says, "Why not let the light endure? Yes, this cool image whatever brings people in, and it's part of who he was. I still haven't figured everything out about my dad and I probably never will. And that darkness, that's truth. But that's not the full picture" (NPR). This sort of posthumous intrigue, especially with celebrities, seems to be the strongest argument for digitizing as much material as we can. The story is the same no matter the genre of music, and if we're talking telling the story of history, there is no better way.
The second story I came across was a CBS Sunday Morning piece about new recordings being added to the National Recording Registry. Latest Additions to the National Recording Registry caught my eye as I didn't know that such a thing existed. This registry is separate from the Smithsonian music collection I've been looking at and was explicitly created to ensure that pertinent cultural recordings, from a variety of music genres and settings (one of the new adds this year is baseball players talking about baseball). There are also Broadway recordings, radio/talk show recordings, and pre-20th century recordings going into the registry. The cool thing about this national registry is not only are the chosen recordings digitized, but with further technological innovation that will inevitably surpass what we currently use, will also be updated so as to always be preserved. There was a new folk genre add this year, Mance Lipscomb's album "Texas Sharecropper and Songster," included because of the cultural significance of Lipscomb's perspective as the son of a former slave and a Native American. In going to the National Recording Registry's website through the Library of Congress I found out that the registry was only begun in 2002 which makes it a little more than 10 years old. This method for preservation is one approach to cultural preservation, low volume but high significance. The question is why some recordings are deemed more important than others, and the possibility that some could be overlooked entirely. I will make a note of any of my Folkways records (if any) that appear on the registry, and it will be interesting to see what gets added in years to come.
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