Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 RECORDINGS AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: Copyright Battles, Format Wars Chapter Outline.

1Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

RECORDINGS AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: Copyright Battles, Format Wars

Chapter OutlineHistoryIndustryControversies


• Music In An Oral Culture– The most ancient works of art depict musicians, and

some of the oldest artifacts preserved in museums are musical instruments.

– Composers began to create what we consider European classical music during the Renaissance, which began in the 14th century.

– Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), one of the most famous composers of all time, was paid only as an organist and choirmaster during his lifetime. Part of his job was to write the music he played.

A Brief History of Recording


– In the 1800s, as the Industrial Revolution ushered in high-speed printing, printed music became big business as people bought music to play on their instruments at home.

– In 1831 music was included in copyright law for the first time. The real copyright battles, however, began with the beginnings of recording technology.



• Early Recording Technology– Thomas Edison made the first recording in 1877,

with a cylinder with grooves cut into it, a horn, and a hand crank. He called his invention a Phonograph.

– Victrola discs were introduced in 1906 by the Victor Company. They were easier to produce and less expensive than cylinders.

– Emile Berliner patented a device called the gramaphone, which was similar to a phonograph, but it played a flat disc with lateral grooves cut on one side.

– In 1914, music publishers joined together and formed ASCAP to fight for strong copyright laws.



A Brief History of Recording• Enter Radio– The birth of commercial radio in the 1920s caused

major changes in the recording industry.– Radio spurred sales as people wanted higher

fidelity recordings of what was on the radio.– Jazz recordings became hot, then big bands, then

country music. Dance crazes would sell records.– In 1929, RCA bought the Victor Company and

formed RCA Victor which would focus on manufacturing records and players.


A Brief History of Recording– In the 1930s, live radio and the depression

caused a big dip in record sales.– The industry turned to vinyl after the Japanese

invasion of Southeast Asia cut of the supply of shellac, the base material that was used for discs.

– Vinyl would eventually make the Long Playing (LP) record possible.


A Brief History of Recording• Stereo and High Fidelity– In the 1930s speaker systems were developed with

separate woofers, to reproduce low frequencies, and tweeters, to reproduce high sounds.

– High quality electric recording made multi-track recording possible. Stereophonic sound was created by placing tracks in the right or left speaker, on in “the center” by being played equally on the right and left speakers.

– In the 1950s, high fidelity (hi-fi) enthusiasts compared amps, speaker power, and tuning capacity just as today’s computer hobbyists discuss RAM, processor chips, and hard drive size.


A Brief History of Recording• Rock and Roll– By 1947, six large record companies controlled the

popular music industry: Columbia, Victor, Decca, Capitol, MGM, and Mercury.

– The big labels pushed a mainstream music style epitomized by Bing Crosby’s crooning and the happy ditties of Perry Como and Doris Day.

– Teenagers rejected the mainstream sound and a minor label, Essex, released the first national rock hit, Bill Haley’s “Crazy Man Crazy,” in 1953.

– In 1954, Haley signed with Decca and released “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and “Rock Around The Clock.”


A Brief History of Recording– In 1954, Memphis disc jockey and label owner

Sam Phillips released “That’s All Right Mama” by Elvis Presley.

– Presley moved to RCA where he recorded several hits in 1956, including “Don’t Be Cruel” and “Hound Dog.” He defined rock music until the 1960s when the Beatles and other British groups like the Rolling Stones entered the picture.

– Presley borrowed many of his songs from the black community. He added a white hillbilly sound to rhythm and blues and gospel, and proved how successful black music could be with a white artist on the album cover, a practice known as covering.


A Brief History of Recording– Chuck Berry and Little Richard were two African

Americans who did manage to break through with their own rock and roll acts.

– DJs who contributed to the growth of rock and roll included Alan Freed in New York and Wolfman Jack in southern California.

– In 1959, on “the day the music died,” three of rock and roll’s biggest stars, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash, Elvis Presley was in the Army, Little Richard was in a seminary and Chuck Berry was having legal problems.



– Rock was revived in 1963 with The Beatles, a British group of four singer-songwriters who were innovative in their lyrics and song styles, and played their own instruments at a time when many pop stars were just singers. Their arrival in the U.S. in 1964 to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show is considered the start of the “British Invasion” of American music.

– Since the late 1950s, at least 60 percent of record sales have been in some form of rock. Rockabilly (rock and hillbilly music) gave way to folk rock and protest songs. Motown became popular with a softer style that featured romantic lyrics. Hard rock splintered into acid rock, punk, and heavy metal.


A Brief History of Recording• Rap and Hip-Hop– Rap is defined as speaking in rhythm over drum

beats. Hip-hop, is the backing music for rap, which is often composed of a collage of ‘samples’ from other songs. Hip-hop also refers to the culture of rap.

– Rap originated in the early 1970s in the boroughs of New York City, especially in the Bronx.

– The first commercial rap record “Rapper’s Delight” was recorded in 1979 by The Sugar Hill Gang.

– In the 1990s, rivalries between east and west coast factions of rappers culminated in the murders of Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.


A Brief History of Recording• The Format Wars Intensify – Magnetic recording, in which sound information is

encoded in metal particles on a strip of film, has been around since earliest days of sound recording.

– Sony’s Walkman portable audio cassette player, introduced in 1979, became wildly successful as joggers and commuters listened to their favorite songs while moving about.

– In 1992, when DAT (Digital Audio Tape) was introduced, Congress passed the Audio Home Recording Act, which levied a 2 percent royalty on the wholesale price of digital recorders, and a 3 percent royalty on blank digital tapes and disks.


A Brief History of Recording– Compact discs (CDs), plastic discs with digitally

encoded music that is read by lasers, were introduced in 1983.

– The format revitalized the industry as music lovers replaced collections of analog vinyl and cassette tape with the better sound quality and greater durability of the new high-tech medium.

– Minidiscs, a smaller version of the CD, appeared in the late 1990s, and lost the battle for market share to CDs and digital download players such as the iPod.


Music Industry Genres


A Brief History of Recording• Music Downloading– In the 1990s, listeners began copying CDs onto

their computers. In 1999, a college student named Shawn Fanning developed Napster, the first successful free file-sharing program.

– The music industry shut down the free version of Napster through legal action, but soon several competitors were developed.


A Brief History of Recording• Music Downloading– By 2001, file-sharing and inexpensive CD

recorders, or burners, were seriously cutting into music industry profits.

– With the introduction and mass appeal of Apple’s iPod in 2001, music could be purchased online for 99 cents a track. By 2008, iTunes and other legal downloads accounted for more than 11 percent of music industry revenues.


A Brief History of Recording• Winners and Losers– The great lesson of the history of copyright battles

is that the music industry will fight new technologies, but eventually adapt to them.

– The marketplace will determine winners of technology battles over hardware (players and recorders) and software.

– Digital technology will continue to create cheaper equipment for producing and distributing recordings, allowing new entrants into the industry and making it easier for new splinter genres to form.


Understanding Today’s Recording Industry

• The Major Labels: Global Goliaths– Four major corporations: Warner, EMI, Sony

BMG, and Universal collect around 80 percent of recording industry revenues each year.

– Until the 1980s, part of a major label’s business was to develop new talent. It took Bruce Springsteen three albums to be considered a success. Today, such artists are dropped or not given adequate promotion.

– In the 1990s, the majors signed multi-million dollar deals with superstars including Michael Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Prince. Most of these projects were artistic and financial disappointments and drained support from developing acts.


Battles in the Audio Format Wars


Major Music Labels


Top Selling Albums of All Time


Music Industry Revenues (millions)



• Independents: Developing Talent– Independent labels are not owned by one of the

majors. Industry practice is for the majors to acquire successful independents who then develop new ideas and scout new talent for the corporate owner.

– Many independents become successful by handling specialized material that is not profitable for bigger companies, such as jazz, classical, religious acts.

– Hundreds of independents share the 20 percent of the market not controlled by the four major labels.



• The Players– Artist and repertoire (A&R) executives discover

and develop the groups and performers.– Producers oversee the making of a master record

from start to finish, including mixing and editing. – Most recording artists spend years attempting to

get recognized but never get a chance to record for a label. Overnight success courtesy of television programs such as “American Idol” are sensational exceptions.

– Some artists become very wealthy but there is also a history of artists, such as Chuck Berry, who were exploited or robbed by managers, promoters and record companies.



• The Players– Arrangers adapt original songs for parts for the

instruments, background vocals, and other musical elements.

– A lyricist, a professional who specializes in the words of the song, may also lend support to the creative process.



• Royalties and Performance Rights Organizations– There are two types of royalties:

1. Recording-artist royalties2. Songwriter/publisher royalties

– Recording artists earn royalties from the sale of their recordings on CDs, tapes, vinyl, and legal downloads.

– Recording artists don’t earn royalties when their recordings are played on radio or TV.

– Songwriters and publishers, however, do earn royalties on radio play and other public performances, as well as on recording sales.



• Promotion– Promoters concentrate on getting a cut from the

album played on radio stations. They focus on reporting stations whose playlists determine, along with sales, a song’s placement on the charts in Billboard magazine.

– In 1991, Soundscan, a point-of-sale computer system that records the bar codes scanned at thousands of stores, began reporting record sales to Billboard.

– Promoters arrange press coverage, lobby for awards, feed tidbits to gossip-hungry Web sites, try to place music videos on MTV, BET, CMT and VH1, and try to get songs on movie and television soundtracks, and in television commercials.


Where Music is Sold



• Distribution and Sales– Recordings are distributed and sold through a

variety of methods, including online retailers and traditional outlets such as music stores, bookstores, electronic stores, discount stores, movie stores, and music clubs.

– Both iTunes and the new, legal Napster offer over 500,000 licensed songs from all the major labels and most independents.

– Online distribution has the potential to produce a much higher profit margin than traditional retailing.



• The Audience– Consumers are becoming more technologically

sophisticated.– Music fans tend to be less loyal to individual

groups than in the past.– Some critics say major labels encourage the

fickleness of young audiences because they can sign young artists to cheap contracts and make big profits with a single album.



• The Audience– Industry executives say this is one reason rock

music is changing from a genre that supported artistic careers to one that gives rise to a succession of young, transient acts.

– Other critics say that, while LPs and cassettes were played in their entirety, CDs encourage tune-surfing because they are so easily scanned and reprogrammed.


Controversies• The Effects– Throughout the 1990s sadomasochistic lyrics,

gansta rap, and shock rock were linked to youthful crime and decadence.

– Several cases are documented where teens have committed suicide after listening to recordings such as Ozzy Osbourne’s “Suicide Solution” and Judas Priest’s Stained Class album, although no court of law has ever found an artist responsible.

– If teens were willing to imitate behavior as extreme as suicide, it seemed likely that they would model the casual sex and violence that seemed to be advocated in rock music.


Controversies• Censorship– In 1990, the music industry adopted parental

warning labels after being pressured by The Parent’s Music Resource Center (PMRC).

– Discount chain Wal-Mart is the largest seller of pop music in the country but will not carry CDs with parental advisories on them. Most labels will airbrush CD covers, change lyrics or delete entire songs to avoid such bans.

– In 2003, Clear Channel Communications, the largest owner of radio stations in the U.S., stopped playing the music of the Dixie Chicks after a member of the group criticized former president George W. Bush.

Copyright ® 2010. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 RECORDINGS AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY: Copyright Battles, Format Wars Chapter Outline.

Documents

recording industry

mcgrawhill companies

music industry

printed music

music publishers

country music

real copyright battles

strong copyright laws