THE LIVE MUSIC INDUSTRY
From the beginning of time musicians gave been performing in front of a live audience in exchange for money or value. Entertaining 100s to thousands of people. When we talk about the live music industry we reference gigs, concerts and any live performances that take place.
THE MUSIC PUBLISHING INDUSTRY
The music publishing industry first began in the 1600’s when Gutenburg the first printing press which was mainly used by the church, since then ‘liturgical chant was reproduced in paper form’. However the publishing industry “paved their way for a more structured delivery of music” during the industrial revolution in the 1800’s. This was because new machinery would enable mass producing of the prints, which would enable them to produce and sell more books, news papers and print media. These new products of printing were “developing economies of scale” which made it possible for them to deliver to a much wider audience than before. Sheet music was also begging to take its rise during the revolution. Venues such as stately homes, theatres and concert halls were always “demanding” the new compositions to be played for their audience to “enjoy”. The most popular music in demand was “Baroque to the late 1800’s romantic”, because of the high demand of this style of music at venues the sheet music associated with this style of music was the most purchases as a lot of people payed for this music to be played. Because of the high demand of this particular style folk music became less popular, leaving to to be delivered more by “word-of-mouth”. This is good for advertising music on a local scale, but it was definitely beaten by mass produced printing which was used on a national scale. Religious music was “propagated” more through priests and monks educated enough to transcribe their “hymns” onto paper but this was “not a commercial industry”. Many orchestras were “able to play compositions from few composers”, because of this problem with the distribution the music publishing industry was created. “By the late 1800’s” composers could write their music and print it for thousands of orchestras and musicians to play.
THE RECORDED MUSIC INDUSTRY
The recorded music industry began to develop in the “1857” when a man named “Leon Scott made his first audio analysis tool”, this device was able to record the audio input of which it received in paper. This later on lead Thomas Edison in 1887 to create the phonograph which was a major improvement as it could “both record and playback audio”, this was made possible through a thin metal tube. The recording invention took the world by storm causing a “format war” through the 1880’s to 1900’s. Every business wanted; “cylinders of tin, wax ,celluloid and disks”. These disks could be purchased and taken home to be inserted in the phonograph, it would then play the record you purchase. This was so popular as it was a never seen before technology and was a huge luxury to everyone. BY “1903 the 12inch record” was made this allowed 4 and a half minutes of record to be played on it, this gave bands enough time to record a song using the sheet music they were given. From that point the spotlight was focused a lot more on the musicians themselves. In 1948 a man named Les Paul recorded the first multi-track recording , this “showed that recordings no longer had to be taken live”. This new discovery opened up new ideas and opportunities in the recording music industry such as “Pauls tape delay, phaser and delay effects”. This was not just important for the technological evolution of music, as it helped shape the modern music we listen to today. Record labels then began a new process when the bring the composers and musicians together to “create a vinyl for the recording industry”, they would hire a talent scout who would put the “right musician with the right song in the right studio with the right producer or sound engineer” they would then decide the best time to release the record. These people became known today as artist repertoire representatives. These people are very important as they make sure the best people are on the job, overall resulting in the quality of the finished piece. They are also responsible for hiring your favourite artists.
THE MUSIC INDUSTRY FORMING 1960
The second world war really helped music as new tech was invented which would later influence the development of mew instruments leading to the rise music. After the second world war we began to improve keyboards using a morse code sound synthesiser which we then adapted into a polyphonic synthesiser which we attached to a keyboard to create an “out of this word noise”. This was the birth of synthesised instruments. Les Paul the creator of the multi-track got “frustrated when playing live” because there was a lack of noise coming from his guitar. So he created the single-coil solid body guitar, this was the first electric guitar. It relied on electromagnetic waves and vibrations which he would then amplify through a speaker. The electric guitar gave a heavy noise which then inspired genres such as rock and metal. Because of the synthesisers and electric guitars new genres of music were being made such as: funk, heavy metal, electro-pop and a range of electronic music. During this time period many new and still today popular artists/ rock bands such as the” beetles, Elvis Presley and Cliff Richards” were given fame internationally. The beetles are known as the first “mega-band” to write, record and perform their own songs. Because of these huge artists on the rise record sales were also rising, which brought attention to wealthier people. The “recording industry began to receive much larger investments”, which helped fund concerts, studio equipment and to publish and distribute a lot more records. Because music was in the worlds spotlight many new artists got inspired creating an every growing and developing industry. Because Bands and artists were cherished so much they introduced merchandise as an “alternative income stream” which was very successful and is still big today as a result of that. The rising sales and investments helped music get bigger and bigger all the way till present day.
TECHNOLOGICAL IMPROVEMENTS
1970 the cassette tape was invented, which is does the same job as a vinyl but is compact and portable, this later lead to a new invention called the Walkman. This was a device that could play cassette tapes while you were on the move, this worked with head phones and was a huge trend. Later on in the 1990’s the records started to move from vinyl to compact disk, computers were also begging to rapidly develop this meant that the online web was also. This would lead to music digital downloads, which would allow everyone with a computer to purchase and listen to music on their computers. But this development also introduced piracy, which is when people find a way to steal content online for free, completely ripping off the artist. In 1999 “John Fanning, Shaun Fanning and Sean Parker” started to focus on converting music to mp3 downloads. This pretty much put all the music you owned into one easy to find digital location. This had a negative impact on the music industry because physical copies of the music were much more expensive than digital copies, which most of the time were free, because of this people got the cheaper to free process online which made the music industry less profit.
THE REFORMATION OF THE MUSIC INDUSTRY
Since digital downloads for music were available the CD album sales had not stopped declining. The music industry however kept trying to profit off of physical music copies, which left tonnes of spare copies left on store shelfs. This probably was a bad move as they were wasting time and money when their music was being illegally played for free. The music companies began to realise legally the internet didn’t have the right to be playing their music as they didn’t own it, so the record companies began to take down the top dogs that were giving away the most free copies in law suits. However this later began to decrease the value of the live performance and publishing industry. So the recording industry was not as effected after these law suits but the other music industries were negatively impacted.
THE FUTURE
The music industry is only just begging to restabalize after the digital download crisis. Before the recorded music industry supported the publishing and live performance industry through record sales. This was reliable at the time as it was only possible to get hard copies of music, but since online downloads sales in recorded music sales has decreased. For now the recorded music industry can support them with that, but the global use of online downloads is draining its money. The music industry believes the next step to save the industry is through ecommerce transactions, this is a commercial transaction that takes place digitally. This is because they believe there music will sell a lot more online than it does in stores if they move it all over to internet stores,
DID WE CHANGE FOR BETTER OR WORSE
When the internet came around and apps such as Spotify and groove shark came around musicians began to profit less and less. This is 100% one of the worst things that have changed as record companies have a lower value market since the beginning of digital downloads due to online pirating. However the live performance industry has not changed much in that regard, other than they may be effected by how many people come to see them when they can listen to their music for free. Back before the internet was a thing musicians had to jump at every chance they had to perform weather it be lucky enough to be a big gig or a playing at a local pub, as the only way to get noticed was through public performances. Even if you are a successful musician who may want to retire, you wont be able to really on your published music online, only the hard copies in stores, which aren’t as popular since online publishing, came around. Although online publishing was one of the worst things for music industry it was also one poof the best because of everyone has the opportunity to be a musician through online publishing. There are many talent scouts that use the internet to find unknown artists, so if the publisher is good enough they may have a chance to make their dream come true.
Advertising for the music industry has improved very well as know we have the technology such as online adds, electrical bill boards and sponsors. The internet may have negatively effect sale from the music industry, however it made online advertising a whole lot better, with major websites like YouTube which gets 4billion views per day (techcrunch.com) means millions to billions of people could see your music advertisement. No advertisement would have even come close to being that successful before the internet. Electrical billboards now allow us to see 1-8 ads on them on a loop, these are usually seen in populated areas like shopping malls and busy cities. Thousands of people can walk past a day and see multiple ads , if you are a starting musician or a big time one and pay for a your album on one you are guaranteed new listeners a day. The advertising has reached an international point where your music can reach people over seas with a click of a button, and a hundred years ago everything advertised on a local to international scale only.
The technology to make music has dramatically improved for the best, because now we have more freedom to make the sounds of music we wish to make. We now have the freedom to make off of advanced music production software such as Logic and Cubase, give you the potential to make your own professional piece of music by yourself. They have many different instruments, sounds and even give you advanced options such as volume and distortion. Now that we have electronic instruments we can now link keyboards with music software’s in your computer to make music using the keyboard, using the software you can select one of the noises it provides to change the noise of your keyboard. This advanced and very cool feature can and has been used in very creative ways by people. Some artists may want to make music while on the move, and because of this technology they can as it can be very portable if I invest in the correct equipment. The evolution of the keyboard has also been very amazing as it used to be a huge box from the beginning and now we can have a more compact design which can store hundreds of different sounds and settings on it, these sounds are all synthesised which also highlights the improvement of synthesised sound.