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