Recording Industry

Question 1

Features of the recording industry

Answer 1

1. Gross Revenues: $10 billion
2. Records come in physical and digital formats. The older physical CD has kept the red ink in the music industry from flowing even faster. Interregnum- a dramatic change
3. ⅓ of all music revenues come from abroad
4. Top Heavy Industry—oligopoly with three
   companies controlling 65% of all records produced

Question 2

Percent of worlds music market being controlled by which companies?

Answer 2

Sony: 20%
Warner: 20%
Universal: 25%

Question 3

What happened in the Napster case and what were the issues?

Answer 3

Napster: website to listen to music using MP3s
Illegal, repeated and exploitative copying

Went to 9th circuit, but got shut down

Fair use analysis
Purpose: not transformative
Nature: creative
Amount taken: all
Market effect: large, loss of album sales esp among college and HS students

Had engaged in contributor and vicarious infringement- had ability to supervise activities and there was financial gain

Significance: did not halt revolution in music
- disappearance of record stores
- courts continued to reject “free music” approach
- led Steve Jobs to create iTunes in 2003

Question 4

Features of Era of Experimentation and Exploitation? (1877-1923)

Answer 4

Record industry: somewhere been a toy and a form of entertainment
Edison invented a hand-cranked phonograph in 1877, afterthought, no pressing need

1887: Flat disk replaced cylinder (Emile Berliner)- gramophone

Battle between Columbia Phonograph and Victor Talking Machine company to dominate market from 1900-1920

Question 5

Advantages of flat disk?

Answer 5

4 advantages:
1. Master could be etched, so mass production was increased
2. Shellac records were harder and more durable than wax cylinder
3. Disk was more easily stored
4. Disk produced better quality sound

Question 6

Features of era of technical progress and financial chaos in record industry (1924-1947)

Answer 6

1. Tragedy hit, medium lost ground due to radio in 1920s
2. Electrically produced sound allowed for amplification
3. Most symphonies were recording records, giving further prestige to the medium
4. 1929-1932 is nadir (lowest point) of the industry

Bright spot: The jukebox: 1940: 300,000 jukeboxes

RCA purchased Victor Talking Machine company in 1928, discontinued production of phonographs

Question 7

Features of record era of maturation? (1948-1980)

Answer 7

1948-1980
- Postwar boom year

4 major changes
1. Electromagnetic tape improved quality of sound (easily edited e.g. Beatles
2. Flexibility of tapes: reel to reel, cartridge system, casette
3. Flexibility of speeds (78, 48, 331/3 RPMs (LP) )
4. New marketing procedures: record clubs, discount stores, change of dollar flow in industry

Question 8

Features of era of digitzation?

Answer 8

5 Landmark events:
1. 1983—first CD Player

2. 1987—MP3 Files created
3. 1998-Napster—key point of change
4. 2003—iTunes
5. 2008—Spotify—Swedish Streaming
   Company is created

Question 9

5 Advantages of digital record system?

Answer 9

1. Eliminates overproduction and underproduction
   of records
2. Convenience
   costs
3. Precise purchase
4. Opportunities for new artists to create a niche market; alternative music
5. Semiotic democracy—non-elites shaping music;
   low cost of equipment allows for “garage bands”