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Pre-1850. The only earner in the record industry is the sale of sheet music. Sales people would travel the country, playing and selling this sheet music to music shops. Aside from live, public performances, the piano-forte and parlour piano is the main medium through which music is enjoyed.
1861 - Western Union completes the first transcontinental telegraph line -- providing fast, coast-to-coast communications during the U.S. Civil War. • 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell issued a patent for the Telephone on March 7th. By the early 1800's many experimental uses were attempted for this invention including what was later called "Audio Theatre" -- plays and readings performed over the telephone.
1877 - Edison invents the cylinder "phonograph" used to record and playback sound. Originally thought to be useful as a business machine for dictation (like the dictaphone which would become later.) Other uses: recordings of plays pre-dating Radio Drama nearly 50 years. • 1877 - Emile Berliner invents the first microphone and sells the rights to Bell Telephone • 1887 - Emile Berliner invents the flat record player ("gramophone") using acoustic horn and licenses technology to record companies who make "70-rpm" disks
1889 - Louis Glass invents the modern jukebox (coin-operated phonograph) and installs it at the "Palais Royal" saloon in San Francisco where it is an immediate hit. • 1891 - The International copyright agreement is adopted between major countries • 1892 - Popular music becomes a serious business; Music Publishers begin renting office space on 28th street in New York City, near vaudeville theatres in an area that would become known worldwide as "Tin Pan Alley." • 1892 - The first "million-seller" song hit (sold via sheet music) was “After The Ball” by Charles K. Harris, who was both its composer and publisher.
1900 - Eldredge Johnson perfects first system of mass duplication of pre-recorded flat disks • 1912 - Charles "Doc" Herrold begins the first regular public radio broadcasting of voice andmusic from his "wireless telegraph college" in San Jose, California; He calls it "The Herrold Station" and transmits to audiences from San Jose to San Francisco.
1927 - CBS - the "Columbia Broadcasting System" begins radio broadcasting on Sept. 18, formed by the demise of the Columbia Phonograph Broadcasting System, a chain of some 16 stations which originated out of WOR -- Newark, New Jersey. It was thought that radio would spell the end for the purchasing of records. Instead, radio proved to be huge marketing tool that led to a boom in sales. • 1957 - Compatible Stereo disks and record players are offered for sale (33 1/3 and 45rpm.) Until this point, a different player was needed for different kinds of disc.
1963 Philips introduced the Musicassette at the Berlin Funkaustellung. • 1965 Pre-recorded Musicassettes were released. Simple to use, the cassette format was to become very popular. However, during its first year on the market only 9000 units were sold. Philips did not protect its cassette as a proprietary technology but encouraged other companies to license its use. • The pre-recorded 8 track cartridge appeared on the �in-car entertainment� market. It was considered a convenient medium for this purpose because it could be inserted into the player with one hand and was a continuous loop.
1975 Recording had become such a complicated process that the computer memory was added to studio equipment. • 1978 First announcement of Compact Disc from Philips Industries.
1979 Sony introduced the Soundabout cassette player which was later renamed the Walkman. The innovative elements of this machine were the tiny headphones capable of producing good quality sound with only the smallest signal from the amplifier, and the increased output from the batteries which powered the machine. Initially considered a novelty and priced at $200 it was not considered a product for mass marketing.
1982 Michael Jackson�s �Thriller� album released by the Columbia subsidiary Epic Records ultimately sold 40m copies world wide and became the most successful product in the history of recorded sound. With the help of elaborate music videos, the album produced seven best-selling albums. Compact Disc (CD) hardware and software was launched in Japan in October.
1983 CD was officially launched in the UK on 1 March. It was hailed as "the most important development in the recorded music industry since the long playing record". • 1984 The CD was firmly established as the finest available music carrier for the present and foreseeable future. (Band Aid year) • 1986 After slow initial sales, 50 million CD units were sold in the year.
1992 Philips introduced the Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) which was compatible with the magnetic audio cassette. The DCC was the same size as the musicassette and the new players were capable of playing both formats. Unable to reach agreement with Philips over the format of digital recording technology, Sony responded to the challenge of DCC by introducing the MiniDisc (MD) which combined the reproduction quality of a CD with the ease of recording of the audio cassette.
1996 The first DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) product was shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. DVD is essentially a faster CD with a huge capacity capable of holding video as well as audio and computer data. • 1998 Music piracy on the Internet, using the MP3 format, became a cult activity. Watermarks, which cannot be heard, were introduced for music.
1999 SDMI (The Secure Digital Music Initiative) specification published, aiming to provide a legal alternative to pirate music.
In the 21st century, consumers spent far less money on recorded music than they had in 1990s, in all formats. Total revenues for CDs, vinyl, cassettes and other physical formats in the U.S. dropped from a high of $14.6 billion in 1999 to $10.4 billion in 2008. • Except digital downloads …
In the early years of the decade, the record industry took aggressive action against illegal file sharing, successfully shutting down Napster in 2001 (the leading online source of digital music) and threatening thousands of individuals with legal action. This failed to slow the decline in revenue and was a public relations disaster.
Legal digital downloads became widely available with the debut of the iTunes Store in 2003. • Inexpensive recording hardware and software has made it possible to create high quality music in a bedroom and distribute it over the internet to a worldwide audience.Arctic Monkeys ‘I bet that you look good on the dance floor’ reaches No. 1 on October 23rd 2005
By 2009, more than a quarter of all recorded music industry revenues worldwide are now coming from digital channels. However, the loss in revenue from CDs far outweighs this profit.
In 2010, most bands relied on live shows and merchandise for most of their income, as income from music sales has dropped almost to the floor. • Big stores such as Tesco and Amazon now sell more music than dedicated music stores, who have had to diversify to stay on the highstreet.
Changes in the music industry have given consumers access to a wider variety of music than ever before, at a price that is gradually approaching zero. However, consumer spending on music related software and hardware has increased dramatically over the last decade, providing a valuable new income stream for technology companies • Wikipedia
