Music started off as just being live performances, as people would just play for their own music for other people. However in the 1800s, the printing press was made to be used generally, this is when sheet music was invented. This is definitely a good change as sheet music is vital for recording down music and letting it be known to the world. This led to classical music taking over from folk music as the aristocracy preferred that. The music publishing industry was created here as composers would create music and write it down then sell many copies to orchestra. This is another great change as it spawned a great part of music which is the publishing industry.
In 1877 Thomas Edison, who also created the light bulb, created a phonograph, that could record and playback music. This was just used for recording singles then playing it, this spawned the recorded music industry. This is again another great change and invention as it helped create some of the main ways people listened to music, it was just in its early form for the next 50 years. As improvement started to happen during the years, such as the phonograph being able to play longer than 4 and a half minutes, and the gramophone and other great inventions. In 1948, Les Paul demonstrated the first multi track recording. This would lead to the creation of 12″ vinyls and how the music industry worked for next 60 years. This introduced recording companies, which would pick up upcoming bands and artists and then the artists would record music and the record company would take a share of the revenue. This is a good change as it created vinyl players which for the public was an amazing invention as they could listen to the music they wanted. This also compensated everyone who worked on the music well as this made money. This also made tours and merchandise bigger, which is another good change as it is another stream of income.
In the 1960s there were some great inventions to music. There was the invention of a keyboard, which made a great improvement to songs as you could make different sounds than just a piano using a keyboard. Also during the 1960s, Les Paul created the first commercial electric guitar, which made rock n roll the main genre of music, with massive artists such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles. The Beatles were also the first rock band to be successful, this paved way to a new way of making music, instead of being a solo artist you could be in a band. The Beatles showed that it worked and is a great way of making music. This was a good change as it created new genres in music, different artists and improved the overall sound quality of music. It also created what we perceive as a band in modern day which impacted music massively.
Vinyls had their peak popularity from 1948 – 1988. This is when everyone would buy vinyls and it was one of the only ways to listen to music and was the most popular way to listen to music for a long time. However when CDs had their first release in 1982, they slowly started to get more traction than vinyls as they were cheaper, smaller and easier to have. In 1986 CDs outsold vinyls. This is neither good nor bad as they only change is the change from vinyls to CDs and a record player to a CD player. There was also more choice now for the audience as some people preferred vinyls to CDs and still bought them, so it was just another choice for the listeners. In 2020, it was the first time vinyl records have outsold CDs for the first time in 34 years.
In 1995 when the internet was released to the world, this is when online stores became massive, people could just order their favourite CD and vinyl from your computer. However the main impact of the internet on music started in 1999 when Napster was released. This meant you could download any song that had an mp3 file to your computer, laptop or to your mp3 player. This is when intellectual property became the most important part of the music industry. Also the publishing and recording side of the industry became very hard to distinguish between. This was a negative change as artists and the people that worked on the song got a lot less money for what they produced as CDs and vinyls were being bought less. This even meant tours got less money then what they did because there isn’t as much money in the music industry as there was.
Since iTunes started dominating the market, with listeners being able to buy singles and albums on their phone and devices, the internet has been the main way to listen to music. However even more since 2008 when Spotify was launched, and that changed the market completely. Some people still bought music on iTunes and still bought CDs and vinyls, however the main way people now listen to music is through streaming. There are now more streaming services such as Amazon Music and Apple Music. This is a great change for the listener as it is an easy way to listen to music, however for the artist it is not a good change. Per Spotify stream an artist gets paid $0.00318, which is absolutely nothing. Also you don’t even get all the money from that as the recording company, agent and other people who work with the artist get royalties. Unless you are an established artist, getting paid by streaming services or getting paid by creating music is probably not going to make you enough money to live. So the main way artists make money now is from tours and merchandise, as there is actually profit to be made there.
This has also gotten worse this year as the Corona Virus has stopped all the tours and festivals that artists were going to appear at. So that has taken away artists main way of making money, which leaves them with merchandise, which doesn’t sell that well if there’s no tour, and the actual money from songs, and that isn’t a lot at all. This year has been awful for musicians as there main way of making money has gone.
There has been some sort of a loop in the music industry, as at the start of it the way they made money was from live performances, then it turned into sales of music and live performance, then recently it has turned back to live performances.