(1) How has digitization changed the recording business?
Digitization has changed the recording business tremendously from the introduction of such devices as music boxes and nickelodeons which allowed for the first acoustic recording and playback technology. This technology was originally invented by Thomas Edison as a means for dictation but was quickly used by the music industry. This eventually changed music because it increased the demand for music by people, and a Machine Company introduced the Victrola which people could use in their homes to listen to recorded music. These early machines helped increase the availability of music more rapidly than ever as the idea of popular music started to catch on.
Radio also had an immediate impact on how recorded music was broadcasted to a wider range of listeners, which initially hurt the recording industry similar to what we currently face with the internet. But eventually this came around as listeners began to buy records of songs they had heard on the radio. Of course one of the problems that radio broadcasters faced was that they could not re produce music in high fidelity and so often live orchestras were broadcasted. This original broadcast in music led to an exposure that would influence the eventual broadcast of musical traditions of American music like gospel, blues, bluegrass and other hybrids or blends of different traditions into new forms. Of course the recording business was changed through technology which was introduced by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) as magnetic tape which improved sound fidelity, reduced costs, and made editing easier. This of course allowed the recorded music industry to produce the music of more and more artists at lower marginal costs to the company while still producing a better quality sound. However the most impactful change to recording industry has been the advent of the digitization of music through electromagnetic recording and the Mp3. These forms of music have allowed for the illegal distribution and piracy of music that belongs to the record companies. This has changed the way in which record companies have adapted their revenue streams. For example, Apple has iTunes which is an online store where users can purchase digital music.
What copyright challenges are raised by internet music technology??
There are many copyright challenges that are being raised by internet music technology because of how much music has adapted over the generations. Today the digital form of music is the dominant form, and this evident by the number of people you see every day with their white iPod ear buds. But I think the first major challenge that the music industry faced in regards to copyrights was with Shawn Fanning and Napster, which gave users and accelerated fileserver that let people exchange songs as digital music files via the Internet for free. And it has not stopped since. Computer owners have increasingly been downloading digital files from the Internet where they are being copied for free. And many of these websites have moved overseas where they cannot be prosecuted by U.S. anti-piracy laws. Today millions of songs are still being downloaded through sites like Limewire, and torrents sites all over the internet. The reaction to this impending loss in revenue by the record companies was slow, and behind the times. If they had been innovative enough, the record companies could have seen the direction the music industry was taking. This is similar to Kodak, and their unwillingness to adapt to the digitization of photography
