Music industry faces revolution
Sat 18 October, 2003 04:50 BST
By Keith Girard, Billboard Editor-in-Chief
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Years from now, October 2003 could well be considered one of the most significant months in the history of recorded music.
The debut this month of Napster and iTunes seems to herald the age of Internet distribution of music -- legal distribution, that is.
In the coming weeks, we'll be witness to a great experiment: whether the Internet moves to the forefront of music technology, surpassing the last great innovation, the
CD.
Some experts say it could take as long as five years for that to happen, and they still don't expect CDs to go away forever. But if the shift takes place, it would be one of the most significant since Thomas Edison recorded the first human voice (reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb") in 1877.
That landmark event ushered in the use of the first tinfoil cylinder phonograph. The patent for the device was filed on Christmas Eve of that year. How fitting; what a gift to the world.
In 1885 Chichester Bell and Charles Tainter invented the Graphophone, which used wax-coated cylinders with vertical-cut grooves.
Edward D. Easton produced the first record catalogue in 1890.
The first coin-operated "juke box" was invented in 1890. In its first six months of operation, it raked in more than $1,000, a princely sum in its day. Sounds a lot like the launch of iTunes. Not long after, the nickel jukebox was born.
By the late 1890s nearly half a dozen record and recording-machine companies were in business. And by the turn of the century, the recorded-music industry was in full bloom. In fact, the business was booming to such a degree that ASCAP was founded in 1914 to collect fees under the nation's first copyright law, enacted in 1909. A year before, flat discs began overtaking cylinders as the premier device to record music for the masses.
In 1931, the first magnetic tape recorder was developed. By the end of the 1940s tape recorders were in wide use.
In 1948, Columbia introduced the first 12-inch, 33 1/3 rpm micro-groove LP vinylite record with 23-minute-per-side capacity.
A year later, RCA Victor came out with a seven-inch, 45 rpm record and player, and Capitol became the first major label to support 78, 45 and 33 1/3 rpm record speeds. The first open-reel recorder also debuted.
The first stereo LPs were sold in 1958, and within five years the first compact audiocassette had been introduced. Eight-track car stereo cartridges followed in 1966, and Dolby Noise Reduction was introduced in 1969.
Ten years later, Sony sold the first Walkman portable audiocassette player. In 1982, the digital age was born, with the introduction of the first digital audio five-inch CD.
DVD players were first sold in 1996, mp3.com was founded a year later, and in 2001 Apple Computer introduced the iPod.
What a rich history of technological development. Somehow the music industry survived and prospered. And our bet is that it will do the same as the new era of Internet distribution dawns.
