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welcome to textile production from heart, radio he there and welcome to textile buying your host Jotham Strickland, I'm an executive researcher, thy heart radio and how the tax area I thought it might be. a good idea to do one or two about the music industry because howdy industry works as a business Is really tightly tide to technology. In fact, music itself is tightly died too technology it is. The product of technology, most cases I mean you can you can saying, and I guess that's a good argument to make her- that some kind of music that doesn't involve technology, but most music does and the evolution of tech, as really affected music in Newgate,

ways from the ability to record it too new ways to create different kinds of musical, sounds and all sorts of ways to experiment with record. eng and music production and distribution. Even that here we have to all that into account. It's not just the tag. It's not just the business. Air tightly integrated as over from the top used to record music to the Tec, used to play it back to the radio broadcasts too streaming over the internet. We can really see hell. Technology has shaped both art and business this by them. Hey. This whole idea of me doing these episodes, which has taken me a long time to work on because there's just so much to cover it, was really prompt did by the recent news that fan of certain artists on death row. Music label were upset to discover

that's some of their favourite albums and songs were disappearing from the very. Popular music streaming services out there- and this coincides with some dogs announcement that he wants to turn death row records which he purchased not that long ago, The first major music label in the metal, verse and I get an enough t- music label pretty extreme. But let's dial back the clock little bit before the early nineteen. Hundreds musicians really only had the option of making a living off their music a couple of different ways. They could, play live venues and take a share of the box office, or they could in themselves a wealthy or generous patron, whether that was civic person, or maybe a government or whatever or like you compose music, and they could then

it onto sheet music and print sheet music and sell that make money that way, but the emergence of recorded media, predated radio broadcasting that the change everything in nice Therefore, the Victor talking machine company, which made phonographs also died business of producing music, because If you don't have anything to play on your talking machine, why would anyone by one now in the early days, recording equipment was exceedingly scarce? Essentially the companies that possessed, recording equipment were the same ones that were producing the play back equipment. They in the business of doing both and then From the very beginning, you had gatekeepers in the recorded music industry where no such things as independent labels in the earliest days. Just the larger fund

wrath and gramophone companies, and so right from the start. We had a precedent in which a few powerful companies determined what music would get recorded so at that point musicians had an opportunity to make money off recordings. They could also count on these companies to market music to a wider audience obeyed reach people there Otherwise they never would have been able to. people would be able to listen and enjoy their music and pay for it. More importantly, that other these musicians would never have encountered, and the company would only make money if people were buying the recordings, so we quickly establish this relationship. the musicians. Creed, the music and the courting company did pretty much everything else from committing music. physical recording to marketing the music to sail and distribution of that music now, praetor AWOL aid U a l, the company

an acronym that stands for artists without a label I do know for deal that Victor talking, machine company dead would give an artist four thousand dollars for a single song and a cut of up to twenty six to forty percent of each which is incredibly generous and I'm imagining that four thousand dollars has I've been adjusted for inflation because otherwise talking about more than a hundred thirty thousand dollars for a single song and there's just no way that that's true. Tat. I find the four thousand dollars thing hard to believe honestly, consider the time period. The end again, it would before thousand dollars in nineteen o four dollars, but the equivalent of four thousand dollars today. But let's just assume that its accurate and that a well adjusted for inflation, the victor, talking machine company was one of three major companies in the industry in those early early days, the other two worthy Colombia Phonograph Company, and then you had these

Most a Edison company and all three These companies were making phonographs or phonograph like devices and so they all had a vested interest in making sure that there was content to play on those devices they all oh each wanted to dominate the industry they wanted to. the big player, so they without each attempted exclusive deals with specific musicians and orchestras And early on, you had competing formats in India. Record industry. So early early on, you had wax cylinders which not only didn't provide the best quality, but they would also where down on repeated playback schools. They had a wax coding and playing them Woodstock. to damage the coding. So after a few dozen plays. It would It really diminish quality, so

when the industry move from waxed, cylinders, two flat record desks, which were it from hard material like Sheliach. It would be quite some time before the industry removed a vinyl. But even when they went to discs the other flat disk format, competing record disk sizes and playback speeds of the play back speeds range from sixty rotation per minute two more than a hundred thirty rotations per minute and the play back. Speed affected a lot of other stuff from much audio. You can commit to a record to the actual playback quality of the music. So, generally speaking, the faster the opium here. The European, in other words in the early days, the better the sound. Quality typically was right, like if you were playing back. The record at a hundred thirty r, p M the club was better than a record that would play back at sixty RPF. However, it also means

it takes much less time for a style is to go there, the groove of record weather recording or playing it back, which means you can we fit a smaller amount. Of audio per side of a disk. Then you could, if you're doing it's more slowly, so there were tradeoffs. You know the aim, and, of course, if you played the desk at the wrong speed like if you had a sixty army M record but you're playing it back at a hundred thirty IBM. Everything would be super fast twice more than twice as fast as what supposed to be, and so be. It would sound like the Chipmunks guy into the coffee again The early days of the recording industry were really a bed messy. I'm sure you're all familiar with various format. Wars. I did an episode about format wars. Last week you know it's easy. for consumers to hit limitations due to buying into a specific format over and others a you know you by the Out of Europe, the Victor talking machine phonograph, then you might

not be able to play anything from any of the other companies. So the gramophones photographs in turn. Tables were pretty expensive in the early days most folks. If they could even afford one would have to make a choice regarding what format they would buy into now eventually the industry would gravity toward standardization, and you would have three speeds that were really treaty As far as the standards you had, seventy eight IBM forty five IBM and thirty three but our p m with forty five. Thirty three ultimately dominating the space, seventy eight kind of faded away, but let's a track a bit to talk about what was going on on the business side and then in these companies first started getting started. What followed was a pretty easily predictable, predatory era in which these.

agents representing these different companies, like the Victor talking machine company, are Colombia or whatever they would go and scour regions for, talented musicians who otherwise were unconnected up. If you watch the movie, oh brother, where art thou they end of play around with this idea near you. You get that that statement about a feller who's, paying some to sing into a can. What Chemistry was actually going on in the early twentieth century. You had these agents seeking out talent, and paying them a nominal fee to record a song and further the talent the fee might be considered right. There might be a few hundred dollars to the tower. That might be an enormous amount of money, but it's like a one time payment and then the music company would have the use of that recording for as long as they kept the recording and ass. They could Some serious money and work

turn on such things- Then in nineteen o nine, the? U S, government passed a copyright act which would guarantee that writers and publishers of music would get a cut of record deals. However, it left out performers, So you might wonder why the heck is that. Why would the writer and the publisher get I a guaranteed cut, but the person who performed it doesn't Well, in the days of orchestral performances, the chamber music in that kind of thing. The gym philosophy was that the bulk of the creative expression didn't come from the performers. Like yes, you'd have someone who was very skilled, play and they're gonna sound better than someone who doesn't know what they're doing, but if you Two different people were really scale, be general thought, was it's gonna be exactly the same and that the real creative of dry? came not from the musicians but from the composer.

The composer would describe in excruciating detail how the music was to be played in the sheet music, and the musicians, at least according to the philosophy of copyright law. Just mere vessels dedicated to bringing that music to life by the composer, was ultimately responsible for the actual work, the creative expression. So the composer would get the credit and the compensation the? U S, gun followed that same logic when they created this copyright law in nineteen o nine. The act also cut but the innovation of recorded sound, which was something that wasn't concerned before ninety nine, because it wasn't really possible- and this would have an enormous impact on the music business, ever musician has getting credit on a song. That musician is eligible for songwriter royalties for the length of the copyright by the way length of copyright. Something that continually got longer and longer when

big companies like Disney, would lobby to extend the period of copyright repeatedly so. while originally the period of copyright would last couple of decades. Now it's like the lifetime of the artist plus. I forget, like seventy years ago that, but musicians who only had a musician credit there now a songwriter they're, just a musician. They would not qualify, for those self same royalties, which is kind of awkward numb, and that this is it This continues to be an issue today, and this also that if you wrote a real Bangor and someone else recorded it like covered it, then you would be do the royalties from any sales or performances of that version. At least songwriter royalties and by Norman, says we're really talking about stuff like new radio play or you. The sin, tv or movies, and things of that nature so be. The songwriter is a good

way to make money or the long run, because does the stuff you right as popular they're gonna have continued pay out for me Since you are not composers, that was a difference, or are they? They can't depend upon that same revenue stream for without indefinitely now, technically the copyright should have curtailed some of the predatory behaviour that I was talking about earlier, but there was an awful the exploitation of talent in those early days. The recording industry then hit some really tough times. The nineteen twenty in the nineteen. Thirty is the great depression hit consumers very hard, so became pretty. so we all play there's an records, because people just didn't have the disposable income to do that. And then we get to the evolution of radio and radio broadcasting. So the early days of radio were all life performances over the air

a really wasn't a thing to play: prerecorded music for the most part, this partly because the recording technology was such that the quality of recordings were far inferior to live performances, so It was considered a pretty big step down to play. A prerecorded peace over the radio. So the early radio business was just the phonograph business and that it was dominated by companies that made radios. At the companies that were making radios were also the companies that owned radio stations. They were in the business of broadcasting, because just like the phonograph, a radio, no good to you unless you get something the tune in to rhyme, doesn't make any since the by radio there broadcasts in your area, so The same companies that were making radios were creating the broadcast stations, and some of those stations were also companies that made record players. So you had. You know this. This convergent

of audio technology all coming in. At the same time,. Explain how that change the music industry further when we come back after this quick break, this episode of text of is brought to you by royal Caribbean accrue sounds good right now. Doesn't it now? Is the time make the most of your vacation and a royal caribbean group gives you the chance to have an experience, unlike any other choose from over two hundred. Seventy destinations, including Alaska, Europe, the Caribbean and even perfect day. Island royal Caribbeans own private get away in the Bahamas, go on an adventure aboard some of the world's biggest ships, it we live, entertainment, world class, dining and amazing activities. Try shipboard skydiving with Iphone take a thrill ride on a water slide or try serving on the flow writer weather

your bonding with friends or gathering the family, to make lifelong memories. Royal, caribbean crews isn't just taking a vacation, it's taking vacation for all its work earth you ve waited long enough. It's time to rise to the vacation, come seek. The royal Caribbean learn more at royal caribbean, dot, com Prudential knows the importance of having a rock in your life. Everyone, needs a rock a rocket help you turn the far fetched into within reach when you I have one you can reach a potential, your dreams, your goals and when

comes to your financial goals. Potential is the rock you can rely on with our knowledgeable financial professionals. We can help you get to new heights plan, invest in sure, retire visit potential, dot, com, Uzi or Rock Prudential Insurance Company of America of Newark New Jersey. This episode is brought to you by square one if your business could sell anywhere at anytime and open to Bora customers all by making one simple choice: running your business with square means being able to sell just as easily whether it's in listen online or on social media. Your business will also be ready for whatever new sales channels might open. Next go to square dot com, slash commerce, to learn, what's possible square helps you reach customers everywhere they are and you can get paid anyway. You shoes with one convenient place to manage everything square lets you.

Add more revenue streams without adding any more work to your day. Good, a square dot com, slash commerce, to learn Watts possible fortune favours the bold, the strong, the brave. for your business to break out of anything holding you back, you need business. Checking as brave as you are. Introducing Novo business, checking its powerfully simple, giving you all the features you need an unlikely traditional banking. all Novo, has no minimum balances, no transaction limits and no hidden fees instead of a one size fits all approach. Novo is customize to your business, to save you time and free up cash flow with seamless integration to stripe shop. If I click books online and more or sign up for Novo for free and join the community of over one hundred. Fifty thousand fearless small businesses who found the customizable business

I conclusion that admires their bravery sign up for your free business checking account right now at Novo dot C, o slash tech, stuff, plus text off listeners, get access to over five thousand dollars in perks and discounts. Go to n, o v, o dot c, o slash tech stuff to sign up for free, Novo, DOT C, o slash tech, Stuff Novo Platform incorporated is a fintech, not a bank banking service as provided by Middlesex Federal savings. F, a member after I see terms and conditions apply our we left off till he no radio stations will these stations would hire performers to come in and play music live over three of radio pills eventually began to slow down, largely because the folks who had been interested in radio and who could also afford one had bought one already so,

there. There was a steep rise in radio cells that then plateaus. the technology hit a really early saturation point and that meant that there needed to be a different source of revenue. This is where radio broadcasts began to incur rate advertising in the early days of radio, the really wasn't advertising, but that changed pretty quickly. In an advertising became the primary way that radio broadcasts stations would generate revenue. Now the can There were side listening to music on the radio was free. The radioset themselves were prohibitively expensive for some And really when I say listening was free, I mean it's free in the way that this pod gas was free and that your Jaso had adds supporting the stuff. But That was really the only cost of listening. Really, I'm sure sounds very familiar to everyone out their right and the rate.

but also served as advertising for musicians and songwriters because, of course now we also had the ability to record that music on to physical media and as recording technology improved, there was a new interest in record players and records, largely driven by teenagers, says like in the fifties or so the kids, will hear sign on the radio. They would want to be able to listen to that song whenever they liked, So they would rush out and buy the record of that artist and the radio would become a key component in the marketing of music. This would all so shaped music itself very early days. The limitations of recording meant you could fit around four minutes of audio on a single physical, cylinder or desk, which meant that you couldn't write me

Zack, though it last longer than that or you had to write music. There could be divided up into four minute chunks, and then you might sell several desks for longer pieces, but it meant that be sorry to settle on us on a link for music, of around four minutes per song or less, which is why, to this day, the way we listen to music, like a lot of our songs, fall into that general range. There was a technical limitation of the time that created it cultural standard really for a standard length of a song. There obviously exceptions to this right. You have the raw bones, where a four minutes, long would be an epic, and then you have the late meat loaf, where a format zone would be the getting of his fourteen minutes long hit. So there are exceptions but gently making like this is what we,

talk about how technology shaped music. This is kind of what I'm talking about the limitation I've only being able to record a few minutes of audio per side is what shaped modern music and four songs to be the link that they are now as record. Technics techniques actually evolved. It became possible to record more content per se. The other record, so the a limitation of four minutes per side grand the faded away. This would end up giving birth to the album. Because, while you could for a very long piece of music per side, and there were people who did it, especially for things like classical music of you. Could also use this to create a collection of songs. however, while that was going on, radio was sweet things back to the early days of recording, because you had the new musical entity of the radio single coming out around this time

no was nineteen. Forty nine, when RCA Victor introduce the forty five If our pm seven edge record now these records because of their size, the seven inch size and there are rpm We need a forty five revolutions per minute. They could only hold a few minutes, a music per side, just like the early records of the era, and several things. All kind of happened to make the forty five really popular one, was that you got a lot of record players that could actually accommodate forty fives. They were less expensive and the larger thirty three in a third albums. They also happen to come out just but or the Rock n roll music Revolution happened, and all of that came together to completely reshape the music industry, and That's really where we started, seeing the the focus on singles.

To the point where you've got some folks who bemoan that where it was, potentially something that limited the music industry. Became a common practice record, a musician or bans really popular song as the aid side of forty five single and then use the other side, the bees side to include a lesser known peace from that ban? So sometimes you might get a demo version of a song which is kind of cool. you get a song that wasn't included on the full album. That featured the ace single that was really cool is like the only way you could get. Those songs luckily the forty five would have the same songs that were getting widespread radio play on the east side. So Again, the radio acted as Canada, commercial for the music. The aid side was the product. The beside with some bonus material. the recording industry evolved certain companies. Solid, dated purchasing up smaller musical,

Those RCA Victor was one of those with RCA being fame. for making radios and broadcast stations Victor being famous for phonographs. Then the to merge together. Some other really big. Recording companies shut down the Thomas Edison company dissolved its wreck, recording division back and nineteen twenty nine. That was your the great depression, so that you know I was kind of coinciding with the time where people just didn't, have the money to purchase that kind of stuff, the birds in film industry also got into the music industry, There were some smaller independent labels that were establishing themselves around this time, as well, so stern get really interesting. by the nineteen sixty. However, the bigger labels were gobbling up all the smaller ones, because there's always a bigger fish, so CBS, which started off as a network of radio broadcasts stations acquired Colombia records which again was one of the big three early early on the also acquired

the American Record Corporation Warner. Brothers ended up purchasing, ABC Records and also had Warner records, and the company bought seven arts and reprise then Atlantic then Electra records labels. So You had these big companies getting bigger massive corpse corporations a reshaping how the music biz worked really fortifying themselves now, for decades, Musicians were pretty much limited by either the huge conglomerates or they can work with a few smaller independent labels. If they wanted to record their music recording require specialized equipment, mixing expertise, dedicated space it required the ability to actually create a master recording and then to duplicate that master recording onto copies. So I just

The practical foremost musicians to do all of this themselves remember this is in the days of physical media. By there is digital approach. Here you could not have a file representing a song, so you, you really did need to lean on actual organ, stations to do this because they had the capital to get all this equipment and expertise together. Didn't you actually had the process of taking recording and mass producing copies of it for sale? Again, Well beyond the reach for individual performers, then you the marketing and distribution side like actually promoting the matter. Bill and getting the material out two points of sale. Another big limiting factor most people would not be able do that on their own, so the sin the relationship between musicians and record labels, really solidified in this era of an eye, You say symbiotic, but depending upon the position you might hear it was more. Parasitic

the record labels had allow the power, and unless you reached a particularly high level the fame. You probably didn't have a lotta leverage to land yourself, a really lucrative deal. Now, one way you could make money is to perform at live, shows. Typically, artists get a cut of the gate, that is the box office or ticket sales. And they might also set up merchandise or merch tables. They typically get most that as well, you have to pay out. The people who are the tables but otherwise that's that's cash in the pockets of the performers. This pathetic her approach also requires a lot of investment anyway, because you gotta get book right, you have to drafting establish a relationship with the venue and get an agreement to perform at a certain date and arrive at the deal. The divide like how much of the time

sales goes to the venue versus the the band and then once you today about bigger venues than you also are usually talking about a booking agent, someone who is just specifically focused on getting that stuff sewn up, because that by itself as a full time. Gig our know how many of you out there have jobs sir activities that involve having to schedule stuff with other people but you'd if you'd, had to do it. You know that there is an enormous amount of time committed to getting that just imagine doing that for a big band, that's travelling, say across the United States and in establishing venues they're gonna performs perform, knowing that the really big ones typically get gum that's pretty early, so you have to plan this out, more than a year in advance. In some cases,.

And, of course, over the last two years, the live performance industry took an an enormously heavy hit. Tons of venues were shut down during the pandemic for months at a time so For about a year. The revenue stream was essentially gone, and even after that it was the owl, It was all dependent upon where you were and says vast majority of musicians make their living by playing live. Shows things got really tough for musicians now, of course, record contracts earn, musicians money too? It's not like they're recording for free the big, way to earn money through records is through royalties. Now this gets pretty complicated particularly since there are different kinds of royalties yo I mention their songwriter royalties, for example, but there are lots of different types of royalties

Now, what royalty is? Essentially it's a payment made to the rights owner of a particular work for the license. Use of that work. The licensed use can include all sorts of stuff include radio air play. It can include the you the music and television or movies Aiken include recording. It can include streaming with artists who have signed when labels we're talking about a percentage of the fee. The gets paid to the label in return for the use of that music. So. In other words, the way this works as whomever once the music, whether it's a person walking into an old school record store or now the person who is trying to do I'll be the soundtrack to the next couldn't turn Tino movie. They go, the record label they pay for the so that music on the record, label takes a cut of this and then a percentage of that

amount. There was paid to the record label, then gets paid out to the rights holder or artist. But it doesn't really get a simple is usually artists get what's called an advance this The sum of money that Spain, the artist upon some deliverable, for example, they can be when an artist signs a contract or completes an album recording. Then the artist gets a pay out, but that pale is actually counted against future royalties. and royalties are percentage of each individual sale. So before east are earning lots of royalties. You first have to recoup money that the label spent on you with. The advance this is way easier to understand. If we actually use a hypothetical example, so let's say they're. My band Johnny in the Tec heads they ten thousand dollar advance on our new album, so that ten grand is ours to keep. Unless we ve done. Some really silly like signed a contract that requires us to pay back in advance if we dont recoup the expense, no

should ever agree to do that. The reason, it's good to get a lawyer to look over contracts before you sign them, say, our royalty payments is a nickel per unit solved, so five cents. Every time they sell a unit It doesn't matter to me what the unit is in this case, this just a hypothetical ex example. Now We don't actually earn any royalties until we ve recouped the amount of money the label spent on us in its advance. That means working the paying off that ten thousand dollars one nickel. At a time It means we would have had two hundred thousand units sold before we started earning royalties and we would start royalties starting with copied, two hundred thousand and one so ones advances, recouped. The royalty checks can start coming in Also, ten grand is a lot of money, but your usually tell you about splitting that with a bunch of different people, there's the band, have a manager there's a producer.

that, usually you have to pay the producers royalty out of your own royalties and, of course, about payments they dont have tax with holdings, so them is that you really need to be holding onto that cash because you're going to be spending some of that to pay taxes, because nothing was withheld, so you're going to owe it at the end of the year. That ten, grand or whatever gets well down pretty quickly. So that's one of the really big reasons that a lot of bans go. Tours and do lots of live shows the albums can get fan fans come to the shows and that's where the musicians really typically earn a lot of cash plus, of course they can connect with their fan base. In most cases, the record labels going to keep around eighty five percent or more of the revenue from albums and songs sold with the artist getting the rest in royalties again, once the advances recouped in return, the record label handles all the distribution and marketing for the musicians, and that's the big tradeoff

I will we come back- we'll talk about how the music industry has changed even more in more recent years. This episode of text of has brought to you by royal Caribbean accrue sounds good right now. Doesn't it now is the time to make the most your vacation and a royal caribbean group gives you the chance to have an experience, unlike any other choose from over two hundred. Seventy destinations, including Alaska, Europe, the Caribbean and even perfect day, island royal, Caribbeans own private, get away in the Bahamas go on an adventure aboard some of the world's biggest ships boy, live entertainment, world class, dining and amazing activities. Try shipboard skydiving with ice. I take a thrill ride on a water slide or try serving on the flow writer weather

your bonding with friends or gathering the family to make lifelong memories. Royal, caribbean crews isn't just taking a vacation, it's taking vacation for all its worse. You've waited long enough. It's time to rise to the vacation, come seek. The royal Caribbean learn more at royal, caribbean dot com fortune, favors the bold, the strong the brave for your business to break out of anything holding you back. You need business checking as brave as you are introducing Novo business, checking its powerfully simple, giving you all the features you need an unlikely, traditional banking, idle Novo, has no minimum balances, no transaction limits and no hidden fees instead of a one size fits all approach. Novo is customize to your business, to save you time and free up cash flow with seamless integration to stripe shop. If I click books online- and

or sign up for Novo for free and joined the community of over one hundred. Fifty thousand fearless small businesses who found the customizable business decking solution that admires their bravery. Sign up for your free business, checking account right now at Novo dot C, o slash tech, stuff, plus text of listeners, get access to over five thousand dollars in perks and discounts. Go to n, o v, o dot c, o slash tech stuff to sign up for free, Novo, DOT C, o slash tech, Stuff Novo Platform incorporated is a fintech, not a bank banking services. provided by Middlesex Federal savings. F, a member empty icy terms and conditions apply. Prudential knows the importance of having a rock in your life. Every needs a rock, a rock help you turn the far fetched into within reach when you I have one, you can reach a potential, your dreams, your goals and when

It comes to your financial goals. Potential is the rock you can rely on with our knowledgeable financial professionals. We can help you get to new heights plan, invest in sure, retire visit prudential dot com, Uzi or Rock Prudential Insurance Company of America Newark New Jersey. This episode is brought to you by square one if your business could sell anywhere at any time and open to more customers all by making one simple choice: running your business, with square means being able to sell just as easily whether it's in person online or on social media. Your business will also be ready for whatever new sales channels might open. Next: go to square dot com, slash commerce, to learn what possible square helps you reach, customers everywhere they are and you can get paid anyway. You, choose with one convenient place to manage everything: Square loves you

add more revenue streams without adding any more work to your day, good, a square dot com, slash commerce, to learn what spa simple so with the rise of the internet. A lot of new ways to earn money have emerged for musicians, musicians can make use of tools like band camp or patriarch. They can sell is it directly to their fans or invite their fans to help support their work. A patriot. Be done in a way where people are subscribing monthly to an artist. They drank it, be done so that every time something new is released, then the supporters can paid have access to that thing, so it creates a more direct pathway between artist, an audience and by

This is a lot of the other stuff that you would typically have to go through. Music You can also try to bank role a recording by law. She got crowd funding campaigns or something like Kickstarter. Randy go go The proliferation of digital recording equipment and software has We open up the opportunity for musicians to take on a lot of the traditional recording work themselves. So, in other words The things that were limiting factors back in the early days, the fact that only these big companies had access to recording equipment- that's no longer the case, right. You can go out and buy them fairly. decent recording equipment for not that much money. None the grand scheme of things a minute it still is gonna cost you probably a few thousand. Dollars which don't get me wrong. That's allied, but its peanuts compared to what it was back in the old days, where there just wasn't that option. So you

can do a lot of this stuff yourself, although it does still require expertise and skill in you know executing it, and that goes from everything from the the playing of the music to the recording process through the mixing process. All of that requires a lot of work. It's not like it's blooded blame, but it's a lot: what more within reach than it used to be, but the two biology that really has dramatically disrupted the music industry over the last decade or so is definitely streaming. So, let's talk about what streaming actually is Please it's accessing media in real time, although we could pick some nets with that definition and the use of the phrase real time, but it gets across the meaning. So instead of downloading a song to a device use, some sort of service could be an app. May your browser based service, too

Listen to music streaming from a web server somewhere out. There. To your local device and your device, receives the music in the form of digital data set pretty much like the other data that would be sent across a computer network, so it's kind of like radio Whereas on demand- and it's not you traditional over the air, radio broadcasts and standards using essentially zeros and ones coming from a server to your device. There are a lot of places where we could start our story about streaming, sample way back in eighteen, ninety three, when pretty much most, the population really didn't stand. What the heck the internet was you the internet underground music archive- or I? U am aim. This was created by some students at the University of California. The crews. Are they launched an organization to give independent artists away to get their music to fans? So

and like if you didn't, have a deal with a big record label that could distribute and print and market your music. This was away where you can bypass all that. This was one of those very early demonstrations of how the internet can't democratize content distribution, bypass the traditional model, which has massive media companies yield being the gatekeepers, which you might guess, the massive media companies weren't super crazy about this idea and you'd be right because it turns out, if a thumb, yeah, if you end up accumulating a lot of power, you're not great, the about giving that up now I find the eye. You may story really impressive, because this was before the mp3 format had really taken off. Mp3 is a type of art your file, where you're using compression to reduce the file size,

not audio compression but file size compression. Two different things here: although there can be audio compression as part of it, because the way and be three works is that at least philosophically the way it works, is that there is there a lot of things and sound that humans cannot directly perceive our ability to hear has limitations, and so the philosophy he behind him be three: is that you drop any sounds that humor, It would not be able to hear anyway, and then you can reduce the file size. Why I'm oversimplifying? But that's generally, the thought process bind and be. Three is a psycho acoustic approach to figuring out what information is most necessary so that you keep that and you get rid of everything else. Anyway, because the three had not really become a big deal

got a ninety. Ninety three, the files were often formats like wave or a I e, F, F and theirs. Be much much much bigger than M p three files, and you have to keep in mind that this was also back in the day when folks were using dial up internet. You know it was pretty limited bandwidth heck. Just getting an image to load, could take the better part of a minute. So this was not streaming. This was not, the days of streaming, this was all about downloading files. Naked take a really long time to download a single file, but this was a stepping stone toward street another really big. Stepping stone was the development of Napster in fact, a later service with the name of Napster, would become a streaming music service. But the original ink, donation of Napster was not streaming. It was a peer to peer file, sharing network that specifically focused on sharing music files. Now by this,

I am by the time Napster came around, which was the late nineties. The M p three format was established. Which was great because it allowed users to compress audio files down to a fraction of their raw size, not me much easier to transfer those files over networks. Also, we were starting to get better connections to the internet. Not everyone had it. I had a dial up internet connection for a really long time, but eventually we got there. Of course, if you really compressed music a lot like is a very strong, vile compression. You could affect the sound quality to the point where it was noticeable, but deal if you are careful, you can find the right balance between file size reduction and not affecting the quality too much now, beer to beer systems are not inherently wrong. They're, not the illegal, but it was impossible to deny that the majority

the file transfer traffic across Napster was with copyrighted music file. And that the people who were sharing them didn't have the right to do so so folks, my news, a computer to rip music files from a cd they put a cd and a cd rom drive the youth programme. To pull the music off the CD rom DR convert men to mp3 file formats, and then store them in a Napster folder and then make them available for other people on the peer to peer network to download those files. Meanwhile, the people, We're doing this we're also looking for music that was available on other people's machines. Napster became a haven of music trading and theft, not I'm cases votes were using it to find songs that you literally could not find in other places like you could not go by this music because it wasn't available for purchase ass. A thing

a bootleg albums and live recordings that otherwise didn't exist commercially. Those were getting a lot of trade there too. Now, just because something is not available, commercially doesn't mean that you have the right to whom to seek out recordings of it, but still like you could see why people If I had rightly they'd literally say like there's no way for me to buy this, and I really want it, I wasn't able to experience it in person. So this is what I am going to do, I can understand that philosophy. Heck I've done it myself in the best. It's very frustrating experience to bear, but a lot of so they were using it just to get hold of a song or an album, or even an entire music library without having to pay for it. I'm not saying ever, What do you use? Napster? Was stealing music left right and centre? but enough people were to make it a real problem. This happened to coincide with a dip in music sales,

In that sense, the recording industry into a frothy rage? I was gonna. It is easy, but it was way more than a dizzy. Now Was that causation or just correlation? I think a lot of correlation here. I don't think it was pure causation. But again when you ve got, a multi billion dollar industry and they see a dep they want. Very. Quickly to identify the cause of that dip into eliminated, because you know corporations are all designed to make as much money as they possibly can sell in case, you had a dip in music sales and a rise in the use of peer to peer networks, specifically Napster. and the conclusion was napster- is killing the music industry, so we must now get from orbit because it's the only way to be sure so

the forlorn Napster and a lot of its users were the targets of multiple lawsuits, some of which allege that Napster had caused massive revenue losses. Now I would say that That is an argument that is impossible to support in any quantifiable way. I mean you could You could say that, yes, it had to have some sort of impact. I mean it's common sense that folks getting access to music for free is going to hurt music sales, but it's impossible to act. We put a quantifiable number on that because you have no way of knowing how many of those folks would have actually bought An album or a single in the first place there had been no Napster does, no way of saying you can't say: oh well, if they haven't stolen this music, then they would have water logic copy. You don't know that it's possible they just would have gone without, but it was still

Lenny enough for the music industry to go nuclear on not just Napster, but all the folks who had been using services like Napster download music illegally and it was a really really ugly time Napster itself in its original form anyway shut down, by two thousand and one the bright Stars burn out the quickest- I guess so the early two thousands we saw first emergence of legitimate digital music stores. Nowhere three could actually purchase a song and had money would go presumably to the record label. Behind that song in the early days. Must these were operated by the individual music labels It would be a little bit later before we would get the Itunes store. The Itunes store didn't actually launch until two thousand three, and There is no denying that this was at least in part, a response to the problems that the industry had seen with services like Napster Apple wisdom

again saying you don't want we'll just stealing your music, but people do what action the digital copies of your music, how do you manage this? Tell you what let us manage it for you, and this was like a huge huge step forward. apple, it would end up being one of their debt most brilliant ideas they came up with when it comes to ways to make more money now, initially these music label stores. They didn't offer any streaming capabilities either customers would go to the stores purchase prices. Songs or albums and download those files to their computers or other devices because in the earliest days were mostly just say about downloading two computers. They way have to actually use a physical cable to connect something like M p, three player. You know like I pod to your computer and you would transfer music over the cable that way primitive right. He notices

again before you had these devices. The had wifi capability or cellular capability built into them oh and by the way, to get off on a little bit of a tangent. This was also the time where you learned very quickly. That apple was great at creating a an experience that worked within a specific ecosystem, if you had a MAC, computer and an ipod- and used Itunes. It was all pretty seamless It's easy to do. It was easy to update your ipod like if you bought new music on Itunes. Dear computer, you get updates I bought pretty easily by connecting it to your MAC. If, however, you own the pc, then he used ideas for pc and you and I bought it- was nightmare speaking as someone from had that experience, it was terrible and you learn very quickly that the ecosystem was going to be a big deal in the future

the attack, and that is another one right. The getting caught in a specific ecosystem, where, if you want to kind of explore beyond it. You end up getting punished for it anyway, as digital music stores were taking shape. You had a few different groups working on pieces of tact. That collectively would allow for music streaming That is where we're going to leave off when we, He come back for our next episode. In this we will start picking up at the birth of musical streaming held that got started. And then how that in turn had a big impact on the music industry and how people make money. to explore. Issues like is their money into you mean you ve probably heard people complain that there being pennies on the dollar because of streaming. their revenue, has taken a huge hit in the wake of street. We're gonna, look at that and see what's going on there, you're gonna, take a look,

at the big streaming services out there and how they are performing and maybe even start talking about. What's next to me, we ve have seen kind of a resurgence in interest and fiscal media that's going to be more of a thing or two, just a little. You know interesting flash in the pan. These are things we will talk about in our next episode for now, we're gonna wrap this up If you have suggestions for topics, I should cover on future episodes a text of please reach out to me that way to do that, is on Twitter, the Hanover the show is tat stuff page as W. you again track star is an Iheart radio production or more podcast. From my heart radio visit the Iheart Radio out Apple podcast, wherever you listen to your favorite jobs. It.