Early Recording Industry Inventors 2024 PDF

Early Recording Industry: Inventors as Entrepreneurs Inventor-Entrepreneur Invents or improves technologies Patents inventions or improvements Has/earns financial resources and investors Develops a business: – Manufacturing – Distribution – Promotion Creates business partnerships Four Groups of Inve...

Early Recording Industry: Inventors as Entrepreneurs Inventor-Entrepreneur Invents or improves technologies Patents inventions or improvements Has/earns financial resources and investors Develops a business: – Manufacturing – Distribution – Promotion Creates business partnerships Four Groups of Inventor-Entrepreneurs Emile Berliner, Gramophone Thomas Edison, Phonograph Alexander Graham Bell, Graphophone Others Seeing the early patents of the phonograph and gramophone, what would you do in this competitive environment? Bell and Tainter invented a Graphophone Similar to the phonograph; made improvements on the phonograph Cylinder recording and playback Edison’s phonographs and Bell/Tainter’s graphophones eventually became the same thing. Outside observers What could other people have done to get involved in this new technology and potential industry? Early Recording Machines: Improvements Needed Ease for using the equipment Higher quality sound: Playback was unintelligible Louder sound, especially for dance music Longer playing time Inventors and experimenters tried to improve quality of devices and recordings Applying these technologies in different settings, 1880s: Cylinder phonographs used for Dictation In courts In business At home Sold and distributed by North American Phonograph Company Recordings as Commercial Entertainment Coin-operated machines (since 1889). Penny arcades. Automated entertainment. Profitability Proven. Albert Keller’s coin-op phonograph, 1890. http://www.radiomuseum.org/forum/ jukebox_history_of_coin_operated_phonographs.html Economic Depression, 1893-98 Triggered by Financial Panic. Unemployment over 10%. Recording Companies near bankruptcy. What could save the recording industry? Selling Pre-Recorded Cylinders/Discs More money could be made in selling records than machines. Edison shifted from marketing playback of phonographs (answering machine, office dictation) to selling pre-recorded cylinders. Berliner had already envisioned this approach, and developed the disc for mass production Duplication Systems Edison and Berliner experimented Negative/Matrix and Positive Copies But… Copies sounded bad Materials: from wax to shellac Surface noise Volume Easier to copy discs than cylinders Eldridge Johnson Victor Talking Machine Company, 1901 Emile Berliner hired him to reduce surface noise; he improved the rest of the machine and developed the business Combined patents to form new company, 1901-03, with Johnson in charge Like victorious/victory, “Victor” isn’t a person INDUSTRIALIZATION From Inventions to Mass Production. First machines, then recordings. Reduce Costs Standardize Parts Build Factories Organize assembly processes Train cheap, unskilled labor – Immigrants, youth, women Columbia Phonograph Company ØHow could another record company emerge in this business environment? Columbia Phonograph Company Sold cylinders AND discs licensed patents from existing companies. – Paid to use patents from Bell/Tainter’s graphophone (cylinders like phonographs) – And sold gramophone discs (by 1900) Edward Easton, director Founded in Washington, D.C., 1889 A surviving branch of the defunct North American Phonograph Company (1880s) Disc Graphophone? Columbia sold both. Terms eventually became synonymous Phonograph and gramophone became the common terms for all types of audio recording/playback machines: –Phonograph in the U.S. –Gramophone in Europe 1900 Duplication problems solved BOOMING SALES Major record companies and their exclusive dealerships Expanding recording catalogues In the USA: The Big Three Edison Records/National Phonograph Co. Victor Talking Machine Co. (Johnson and Berliner) Columbia Phonograph Co. (Easton) Companies outside the U.S. ØWhat could companies outside the U.S. have done to get involved in this new industry? Internationalization of the Recording Industry It was already international: – Remember, precursor inventions came from France, Bell and Edison were Americans, and Berliner was a German immigrant – The inventions were based on internationally advanced scientific knowledge. Before 1900, Berliner expanded internationally After 1900, new European companies began before the U.S. due to patent restrictions and legal fights in the U.S. Berliner’s international network He sought European business partners to distribute gramophones and recordings. 1898: deal with London lawyer William Barry Owen to establish English company, Gramophone Company, exclusive rights to Berliner’s gramophone technology. Brother Joseph Berliner established a disc duplication factory in Hanover, Germany, called Deutsche Grammophon. Gramophone’s brand “His Master’s Voice” (used by Victor too) Nipper listening to a gramophone; the brand endured a long life. Other European Record Companies Patent laws in the U.S. prevented competition until 1910, but in Europe new companies started earlier. Major examples: In Germany, several labels in one company: Odeon, Parlophon, Beka, Fonotipia, and Jumbo. In France, Pathé label. Recording Music Around Europe and the World Company representatives traveled throughout Europe and around the world to record local musicians Both for local markets and to sell in Europe and the U.S. particularly to immigrants from those national cultures, who would appreciate the music most (ethnic music) Some created local subsidiary companies Victor/Gramophone producer-engineer Fred Gaisberg and brother Will recorded so much music II: Discs vs. Cylinders Why did gramophones (discs) become more popular than phonographs (cylinders)? Why Discs beat Cylinders Customers preferred discs: – Louder – Easier to use – Easier to store Easier to duplicate (stamp) luxury furniture: Victrola 1906 Edison didn’t respond to customer feedback; he thought he knew best Celebrity musicians vs. studio musicians Victor advertised extensively (David Suisman, Selling Sounds) Marketed “high culture” (Suisman) Victrola XVI. http://edisoneffect.blogspot.com/2007/12/in-age-of-weekly-salary-of-700-to.html Victrolas set the trend. Pandered to Upper-class Taste. $200 vs. $10-50 “Once a piano had graced the parlor of the middle-class home and gave it an air of refinement and culture. Now a fine Victrola and a collection of the exclusive Victor Red Seal records made the same statement.” “It became fashionable to own a Victrola.” (p. 131) Advertisement, 1910. http://edisoneffect.blogspot.com/2007/12/in-age-of-weekly-salary-of-700-to.html “Victrola” sounds like “Pianola” David Suisman, Selling Sounds (Harvard UP, 2010) Enrico Caruso (1873-1921) & Victor Enrico Caruso Museum of America 1942 East 19th Street Brooklyn, NY 11229 Phone and Fax: (718)-368-3993 http://enricocarusomuseum.com Caruso, “Vesti la Giubba” (Put on the costume) Popular Taste, Technology, and the Modern Musician Fred Gaisberg, the recording engineer: “By selecting loud voices and standing the singer further away from the collector or horn the false tones could be avoided; at the same time the loud, rich voice covered up the surface noise inherent in the disc.” (p. 107-108) David Suisman: “He was the model of the successful modern musician – as adept at performing for a machine and team of recording experts as for [a] hall filled with opera devotees.” (p. 108) Caruso Records show “international character of the industry” (Millard, p. 69) Discovered and recorded in Italy By American producer Fred Gaisberg Working for English branch of US company Records duplicated in Germany for Europe Victor in NJ duplicated for US market Also sold in South America and East Asia Elitist marketing strategy from Russian branch Victor’s Red Label Series Caruso, Red Label, One-sided Benny Goodman, Black Label “Promoted high culture for a mass audience” “To sell machines, that is, Victor pushed records, and to sell records, it promoted high culture.” (Suisman, p. 104) REVIEW Why Opera? Why Italian Opera? Why a Tenor Voice? Why Caruso? How did Edison respond to gramophone popularity? Edison’s Diamond Disc, 1913 Edison’s Diamond Disc, 1913 acoustic phonograph, diamond stylus, vertical grooves Industry production at 1914: 23 million discs produced vs. 3 million cylinders Were Diamond Discs successful? What could have Edison done differently to compete against the popularity of Victrolas and gramophones?