1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:14,680 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,760 --> 00:00:17,520 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio. 4 00:00:17,640 --> 00:00:21,160 Speaker 1: And how the tech are You? I thought it might 5 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:24,759 Speaker 1: be a good idea to do an episode or two 6 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:29,760 Speaker 1: about the music industry, because how the industry works as 7 00:00:29,760 --> 00:00:35,080 Speaker 1: a business is really tightly tied to technology. In fact, 8 00:00:35,159 --> 00:00:39,080 Speaker 1: music itself is tightly tied to technology. It is the 9 00:00:39,120 --> 00:00:43,200 Speaker 1: product of technology in most cases. I mean, you can 10 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:46,159 Speaker 1: you can sing, and I guess that's a good argument 11 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: to make a that that's a kind of music that 12 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: doesn't involve technology, but most music does. And the evolution 13 00:00:53,400 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 1: of tech has really affected music in numerous ways, for um, 14 00:01:00,360 --> 00:01:04,200 Speaker 1: the ability to record it, to new ways to create 15 00:01:04,440 --> 00:01:08,759 Speaker 1: different kinds of musical sounds, and all sorts of ways 16 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:17,440 Speaker 1: to experiment with recording and music production and distribution. Even that, 17 00:01:17,880 --> 00:01:20,600 Speaker 1: you know, we we have to take all that into account. 18 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,080 Speaker 1: It's not just the tech, it's not just the business. 19 00:01:24,080 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: They are tightly integrated. So from the tech used to 20 00:01:27,240 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 1: record music to the tech used to play it back 21 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:34,920 Speaker 1: to the radio broadcasts to streaming over the internet, we 22 00:01:34,959 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: can really see how technology has shaped both art and business. Uh. This, 23 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:43,400 Speaker 1: by the way, this whole idea of me doing these episodes, 24 00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:45,200 Speaker 1: which has taken me a long time to work on 25 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:47,920 Speaker 1: because there's just so much to cover. It was really 26 00:01:47,960 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 1: prompted by the recent news that fans of certain artists 27 00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:55,960 Speaker 1: on the death Row Music label we're upset to discover 28 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:59,360 Speaker 1: that some of their favorite albums and songs we're just 29 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: disappearing from the various popular music streaming services out there. 30 00:02:04,280 --> 00:02:07,840 Speaker 1: And this coincides with Snoop Dogg's announcement that he wants 31 00:02:07,880 --> 00:02:10,800 Speaker 1: to turn death Row Records, which he purchased not that 32 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: long ago, into the first major music label in the 33 00:02:14,680 --> 00:02:18,800 Speaker 1: metaverse and make it an n f T music label. 34 00:02:19,320 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: UM pretty extreme, but let's dial back the clock a 35 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:28,760 Speaker 1: little bit. Before the early nineteen hundreds, musicians really only 36 00:02:28,800 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: had the option to making a living off their music 37 00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,359 Speaker 1: a couple of different ways. They could play live venues 38 00:02:35,639 --> 00:02:39,200 Speaker 1: and take a share of the box office, or they 39 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:43,840 Speaker 1: could find themselves a wealthy or generous patron, whether that 40 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:47,840 Speaker 1: was a specific person or maybe a government or whatever. Um. 41 00:02:47,960 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 1: Or they could compose music and they could then put 42 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:55,640 Speaker 1: it onto sheet music and print sheet music and sell 43 00:02:55,720 --> 00:03:00,920 Speaker 1: that make money that way, But the emergence of recorded media, 44 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:06,280 Speaker 1: which predated radio broadcasting, that would change everything. In nineteen 45 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,239 Speaker 1: o four, the Victor Talking Machine company, which made phonographs, 46 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,400 Speaker 1: also got into the business of producing music, because if 47 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:16,400 Speaker 1: you don't have anything to play on your talking machine, 48 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:20,400 Speaker 1: why would anyone buy one? Now? In the early days, 49 00:03:20,760 --> 00:03:27,840 Speaker 1: recording equipment was exceedingly scarce. Essentially, the companies that possessed 50 00:03:28,480 --> 00:03:31,120 Speaker 1: recording equipment were the same ones that were producing the 51 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: playback equipment. They were in the business of doing both, 52 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:38,280 Speaker 1: and that meant from the very beginning you had gatekeepers 53 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,600 Speaker 1: in the recorded music industry. There were no such things 54 00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:46,160 Speaker 1: as independent labels in the earliest days, just the larger 55 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:50,440 Speaker 1: phonograph and grammophone companies, and so right from the start 56 00:03:50,720 --> 00:03:53,680 Speaker 1: we had a precedent in which a few powerful companies 57 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:58,840 Speaker 1: determined what music would get recorded. So at that point 58 00:03:58,920 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 1: musicians had an opportun tunity to make money off recordings. 59 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 1: They could also count on these companies to market music 60 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:11,080 Speaker 1: to a wider audience, so they'd reach people that otherwise 61 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:14,080 Speaker 1: they never would have been able to. People would be 62 00:04:14,120 --> 00:04:17,160 Speaker 1: able to listen and enjoy their music and pay for 63 00:04:17,240 --> 00:04:21,400 Speaker 1: it more importantly that otherwise these musicians would never have 64 00:04:21,560 --> 00:04:24,880 Speaker 1: encountered and the company would only make money if people 65 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:28,279 Speaker 1: were buying the recordings. So we quickly established this relationship 66 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 1: in which the musicians created the music and the recording 67 00:04:32,160 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: company did pretty much everything else, from committing music to 68 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: a physical recording to marketing the music, to sales and 69 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:43,920 Speaker 1: distribution of that music. Now, according to a Wall, a 70 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:46,599 Speaker 1: w a L is a company with an acronym that 71 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:50,080 Speaker 1: stands for artists without a label. Uh, the nineteen o 72 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:54,080 Speaker 1: four deal that Victor Talking Machine Company did would give 73 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:57,600 Speaker 1: an artist four thousand dollars for a single song and 74 00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:02,320 Speaker 1: a cut of up to twenty to percent of each sale, 75 00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:06,599 Speaker 1: which is incredibly generous. And I'm imagining that four thousand 76 00:05:06,680 --> 00:05:10,280 Speaker 1: dollars has to have been adjusted for inflation, because otherwise 77 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:12,800 Speaker 1: we're talking about more than a hundred thirty thousand dollars 78 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:16,080 Speaker 1: for a single song, and there's just no way that 79 00:05:16,080 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: that's true. Heck, I find the four thousand dollars thing 80 00:05:19,960 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: hard to believe honestly, considering the time period. And again, 81 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:27,160 Speaker 1: it wouldn't be four thousand dollars in nineteen four dollars, 82 00:05:27,160 --> 00:05:30,760 Speaker 1: but the equivalent of four thousand dollars today, but let's 83 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:33,160 Speaker 1: just assume that it's all accurate and that a wall 84 00:05:33,200 --> 00:05:37,120 Speaker 1: adjusted for inflation. The Victor Talking Machine Company was one 85 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:40,480 Speaker 1: of three major companies in the industry in those early 86 00:05:40,520 --> 00:05:44,039 Speaker 1: early days. The other two were the Columbia Phonograph Company, 87 00:05:44,160 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: and then you had the Thomas A. Edison Company, And 88 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:50,320 Speaker 1: all three of these companies were making phonographs or phonograph 89 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:54,040 Speaker 1: like devices, and so they all had a vested interest 90 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:56,960 Speaker 1: in making sure that there was content to play on 91 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:02,240 Speaker 1: those devices. They also each one had to dominate the industry. 92 00:06:02,279 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 1: They wanted to be the big player, so they would 93 00:06:06,279 --> 00:06:12,200 Speaker 1: each attempt to get exclusive deals with specific musicians and orchestras. 94 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:16,560 Speaker 1: And early on you had competing formats in in the 95 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:20,360 Speaker 1: record industry. So early early on, you had wax cylinders, 96 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 1: which not only didn't provide the best sound quality, but 97 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:27,520 Speaker 1: they would also wear down unrepeated playbacks because they had 98 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:31,679 Speaker 1: a wax coding and playing them would start to damage 99 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,160 Speaker 1: the coding, so you know, after like a few dozen plays, 100 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:39,680 Speaker 1: it would be really diminished quality. So even when the 101 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:44,279 Speaker 1: industry moved from wax cylinders to flat record discs, which 102 00:06:44,920 --> 00:06:48,160 Speaker 1: were made from hard material like shellac. It would be 103 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:50,800 Speaker 1: quite some time before the industry would move to vinyl, 104 00:06:51,640 --> 00:06:53,919 Speaker 1: but even when they went to disks, you know, the 105 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:57,839 Speaker 1: flat disc format you had competing record disc sizes and 106 00:06:57,920 --> 00:07:01,680 Speaker 1: playback speeds of the playback speeds would range from sixty 107 00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:05,560 Speaker 1: rotations per minute up to more than a hundred thirty 108 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:09,040 Speaker 1: rotations per minute, and the playback speed affected a lot 109 00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 1: of other stuff, from how much audio you could commit 110 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:16,320 Speaker 1: to a record to the actual playback quality of the music. 111 00:07:16,600 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: So generally speaking, the faster the rpm, the higher the rpm. 112 00:07:21,400 --> 00:07:23,800 Speaker 1: In other words, in the early days, the better the 113 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:29,120 Speaker 1: sound quality typically was. Right like, if you were playing 114 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:32,360 Speaker 1: back the record at a hundred thirty rpm, the quality 115 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:34,120 Speaker 1: was better than a record that would play back at 116 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:38,080 Speaker 1: sixty rpm. However, it also means that it takes much 117 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:41,200 Speaker 1: less time for a stylist to go through the groove 118 00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:44,520 Speaker 1: of a record, uh, whether you're recording or playing it back, 119 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: which means you could only fit a smaller amount of 120 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:51,080 Speaker 1: audio per side of a disc then you could if 121 00:07:51,080 --> 00:07:54,360 Speaker 1: you were doing it more slowly. So there were trade offs, 122 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:57,560 Speaker 1: uh you know you and of course, if you played 123 00:07:57,560 --> 00:07:59,960 Speaker 1: the disc at the wrong speed, like if you had 124 00:08:00,120 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: to sixty RPM record, but you were playing it back 125 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:06,720 Speaker 1: at at rpm. Everything would be super fast twice more 126 00:08:06,720 --> 00:08:08,440 Speaker 1: than twice as fast as what's supposed to be and 127 00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: sold be it wold sound like the chipmunks got into 128 00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:15,160 Speaker 1: the coffee again. So the early days of the recording 129 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:18,560 Speaker 1: industry were really a bit messy. I'm sure you're all 130 00:08:18,600 --> 00:08:21,239 Speaker 1: familiar with various format wars. I did an episode about 131 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:24,920 Speaker 1: format wars last week. You know, it's easy for consumers 132 00:08:24,920 --> 00:08:28,360 Speaker 1: to hit limitations due to buying into a specific format 133 00:08:28,640 --> 00:08:31,000 Speaker 1: over and others. So you know, you buy you know, 134 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:34,840 Speaker 1: if you were to buy the Victor Talking Machine phonograph, 135 00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:38,480 Speaker 1: then you might not be able to play anything from 136 00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:42,640 Speaker 1: any of the other companies. So the gramophones and phonographs 137 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:45,800 Speaker 1: and turntables were pretty expensive in the early days. Most folks, 138 00:08:45,840 --> 00:08:48,720 Speaker 1: if they could even afford one, would have to make 139 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:52,120 Speaker 1: a choice regarding which format they would buy into. Now, 140 00:08:52,160 --> 00:08:56,440 Speaker 1: eventually the industry would gravitate towards standardization, and you would 141 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:01,559 Speaker 1: have three speeds that were really treated as as the standards. 142 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:06,040 Speaker 1: You had seventy eight RBMT, r PM and thirty three 143 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:09,880 Speaker 1: and a third RBM with fort and thirty three ultimately 144 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:14,840 Speaker 1: dominating the Space seventy eight kind of faded away. Well, 145 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:16,960 Speaker 1: let's backtrack a bit to talk about what was going 146 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:21,880 Speaker 1: on on the business side. And then when these companies 147 00:09:21,920 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: first started getting started, what followed was a pretty easily 148 00:09:26,040 --> 00:09:32,280 Speaker 1: predictable predatory era in which these you know, agents representing 149 00:09:32,280 --> 00:09:34,800 Speaker 1: these different companies like the Victor Talking Machine Company or 150 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:39,920 Speaker 1: Columbia or whatever, they would go and scour regions for 151 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:45,240 Speaker 1: talented musicians who otherwise we're unconnected. If you've watched the movie, 152 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:49,200 Speaker 1: Oh Brother, Where art Thou, they kind of play around 153 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:53,559 Speaker 1: with this idea. You know, you get that that statement 154 00:09:53,559 --> 00:09:57,240 Speaker 1: about a feller who's paying some folks to sing into 155 00:09:57,280 --> 00:10:00,439 Speaker 1: a can. Well, that kind of stuff was actually going 156 00:10:00,480 --> 00:10:03,200 Speaker 1: on in the early twentieth century. You had these agents 157 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:07,240 Speaker 1: seeking out talent and paying them a nominal fee to 158 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:11,000 Speaker 1: record a song. And for the talent, the fee might 159 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:13,400 Speaker 1: be considerable, right, there might be a few hundred dollars 160 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:16,200 Speaker 1: into the talent. That might be an enormous amount of money, 161 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:20,080 Speaker 1: but it was like a one time payment, and then 162 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:23,559 Speaker 1: the music company would have the use of that recording 163 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:27,160 Speaker 1: for as long as they kept the recording, and they 164 00:10:27,200 --> 00:10:32,240 Speaker 1: could make some serious money. And world's turn on such things. Then, 165 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:35,439 Speaker 1: in n nine, the US government passed a copyright Act 166 00:10:35,480 --> 00:10:39,520 Speaker 1: which would guarantee that writers and publishers of music would 167 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:44,240 Speaker 1: get a cut of record deals. However, it left out performers. 168 00:10:44,679 --> 00:10:47,240 Speaker 1: So you might wonder, well, why the heck is that. 169 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,599 Speaker 1: Why would the writer and the publisher get a a 170 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:56,760 Speaker 1: guaranteed cut but the person who performed it doesn't. Well, 171 00:10:56,800 --> 00:11:01,040 Speaker 1: in the days of orchestral performances and chamber music and 172 00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:04,719 Speaker 1: that kind of thing, the general philosophy was that the 173 00:11:04,800 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 1: bulk of the creative expression didn't come from the performers. Like, yes, 174 00:11:11,000 --> 00:11:13,319 Speaker 1: you can have someone who is very skilled play and 175 00:11:13,320 --> 00:11:15,680 Speaker 1: they're gonna sound better than someone who doesn't know what 176 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:19,520 Speaker 1: they're doing. But if you had two different people who 177 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:21,480 Speaker 1: are really skilled, the general thought was it's going to 178 00:11:21,559 --> 00:11:25,520 Speaker 1: be exactly the same, and that the real creative drive 179 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:29,160 Speaker 1: came not from the musicians but from the composer. The 180 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:33,160 Speaker 1: composer would describe in excruciating detail how the music was 181 00:11:33,200 --> 00:11:36,199 Speaker 1: to be played in the sheet music, and the musicians, 182 00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:40,760 Speaker 1: at least according to the philosophy of copyright law, we're 183 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:45,320 Speaker 1: just mirror vessels dedicated to bringing that music to life. 184 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:49,120 Speaker 1: But the composer was ultimately responsible for the actual work, 185 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:52,280 Speaker 1: the creative expression, and so the composer would get the 186 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:56,240 Speaker 1: credit and the compensation. The US government followed that same 187 00:11:56,280 --> 00:11:59,360 Speaker 1: logic when they created this copyright law in nineteen o nine. 188 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:03,480 Speaker 1: The Act also covered the innovation of recorded sound, which 189 00:12:03,520 --> 00:12:06,400 Speaker 1: was something that wasn't a concern before nineteen nine because 190 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:10,480 Speaker 1: it wasn't really possible. And this would have an enormous 191 00:12:10,559 --> 00:12:14,480 Speaker 1: impact on the music business. If a musician has a 192 00:12:14,520 --> 00:12:18,040 Speaker 1: writing credit on a song, that musician is eligible for 193 00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:22,400 Speaker 1: songwriter royalties for the length of the copyright. By the way, 194 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:26,520 Speaker 1: length of copyright was something that continually got longer and 195 00:12:26,640 --> 00:12:30,920 Speaker 1: longer when big companies like Disney would lobby to extend 196 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:36,640 Speaker 1: the period of copyright repeatedly. So while originally the period 197 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:39,800 Speaker 1: of copyright would last couple of decades, now it's like 198 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:43,319 Speaker 1: the lifetime of the artist, plus I forget, like seventy 199 00:12:43,400 --> 00:12:46,480 Speaker 1: years something like that. But musicians who only had a 200 00:12:46,600 --> 00:12:49,959 Speaker 1: musician credit, they're not a songwriter, they're just a musician, 201 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:53,199 Speaker 1: they would not qualify for those same royalties, which is 202 00:12:53,240 --> 00:12:58,080 Speaker 1: kind of awkward. Um, and this is like this continues 203 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:01,120 Speaker 1: to be an issue today. This also meant that if 204 00:13:01,160 --> 00:13:04,520 Speaker 1: you wrote a real banger and someone else recorded it 205 00:13:04,840 --> 00:13:07,120 Speaker 1: like they covered it, then you would be do the 206 00:13:07,200 --> 00:13:10,400 Speaker 1: royalties from any sales or performances of that version, at 207 00:13:10,440 --> 00:13:14,200 Speaker 1: least songwriter royalties. And by performances, we're really talking about 208 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:18,360 Speaker 1: stuff like you know, radio play or use in TV 209 00:13:18,640 --> 00:13:21,760 Speaker 1: or movies and things of that nature. So being a 210 00:13:21,760 --> 00:13:24,800 Speaker 1: songwriter is a good way to make money over the 211 00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:28,960 Speaker 1: long run, because as long as the stuff you write 212 00:13:29,040 --> 00:13:32,160 Speaker 1: is popular, you're going to have a continued payout. For 213 00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:36,120 Speaker 1: musicians who are not composers, that was a different story. 214 00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:43,400 Speaker 1: They can't depend upon that same revenue stream for you know, indefinitely. Now, 215 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:47,360 Speaker 1: technically the Copyright Act should have curtailed some of the 216 00:13:47,400 --> 00:13:50,880 Speaker 1: predatory behavior that I was talking about earlier, but there 217 00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:53,600 Speaker 1: was an awful lot of exploitation of talent in those 218 00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:57,160 Speaker 1: early days. The recording industry then hit some really tough 219 00:13:57,200 --> 00:13:59,719 Speaker 1: times in the nineteen twenties and the nineteen thirties. The 220 00:13:59,760 --> 00:14:03,839 Speaker 1: Great Depression hit consumers very hard, so it became pretty 221 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:07,360 Speaker 1: tough to sell you know, players and records because people 222 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:11,600 Speaker 1: just didn't have the disposable income to do that. And 223 00:14:11,640 --> 00:14:15,480 Speaker 1: then we get to the evolution of radio and radio broadcasting. 224 00:14:15,559 --> 00:14:18,320 Speaker 1: So the early days of radio, we're all about live 225 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:22,320 Speaker 1: performances over the air. It really wasn't a thing to 226 00:14:22,440 --> 00:14:25,880 Speaker 1: play prerecorded music for the most part. This was partly 227 00:14:25,920 --> 00:14:30,120 Speaker 1: because the recording technology was such that the quality of 228 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:35,000 Speaker 1: recordings were far inferior to live performances, so it was 229 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:38,800 Speaker 1: considered a pretty big step down to play a prerecorded 230 00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:43,920 Speaker 1: piece over the radio. So the early radio business was 231 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:46,920 Speaker 1: just like the phonograph business, and that it was dominated 232 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:51,240 Speaker 1: by companies that made radios. The companies that were making 233 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 1: radios were also the companies that owned radio stations. They were, 234 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:57,080 Speaker 1: you know, in the business of broadcasting, because just like 235 00:14:57,120 --> 00:15:00,400 Speaker 1: the phonograph, a radio ain't no good to you unless 236 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:02,720 Speaker 1: he got something to tune into, right, It doesn't make 237 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:04,760 Speaker 1: any sense to buy a radio if there are no 238 00:15:04,800 --> 00:15:08,400 Speaker 1: broadcasts in your area. So the same companies that were 239 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:11,240 Speaker 1: making radios were creating the broadcast stations, and some of 240 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:15,680 Speaker 1: those stations were also companies that made record players. So 241 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:21,640 Speaker 1: you had, you know, this this convergence of audio technology 242 00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:25,200 Speaker 1: all coming in at the same time. I'll explain how 243 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:28,120 Speaker 1: that changed the music industry further when we come back 244 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:38,520 Speaker 1: after this quick break. All right, we left off talking 245 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:41,840 Speaker 1: about radio stations. Well, these stations would hire performers to 246 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:46,080 Speaker 1: come in and play music live over the radio. Radio 247 00:15:46,160 --> 00:15:49,080 Speaker 1: sales eventually began to slow down, largely because the folks 248 00:15:49,080 --> 00:15:51,600 Speaker 1: who had been interested in radio and who could also 249 00:15:51,680 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: afford one, had bought one already. So there was a 250 00:15:57,000 --> 00:16:01,680 Speaker 1: steep rise in radio sales that then plateau. The technology 251 00:16:01,920 --> 00:16:04,520 Speaker 1: hit a really early saturation point, and that meant that 252 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:07,960 Speaker 1: there needed to be a different source of revenue. This 253 00:16:08,080 --> 00:16:11,960 Speaker 1: is where radio broadcasts began to incorporate advertising. And the 254 00:16:12,040 --> 00:16:15,640 Speaker 1: early days of radio there really wasn't advertising, but that 255 00:16:15,800 --> 00:16:20,200 Speaker 1: changed pretty quickly. Um, and then advertising became the primary 256 00:16:20,240 --> 00:16:24,000 Speaker 1: way that radio broadcast stations would generate revenue. Now, on 257 00:16:24,040 --> 00:16:28,400 Speaker 1: the consumer side, listening to music on the radio was free. 258 00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:33,840 Speaker 1: The radio sets themselves were prohibitively expensive for some folks. Um. 259 00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:36,000 Speaker 1: And really, when I say listening was free, I mean 260 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:38,200 Speaker 1: it's free in the way that this podcast was free, 261 00:16:38,240 --> 00:16:41,600 Speaker 1: and that you know, you also had ads supporting the stuff, 262 00:16:42,240 --> 00:16:46,520 Speaker 1: but that was really the only cost of listening. Really, 263 00:16:46,720 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: I'm sure sounds very familiar to everyone out there, right. 264 00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:53,160 Speaker 1: And the radio also served as advertising for musicians and 265 00:16:53,200 --> 00:16:56,120 Speaker 1: songwriters because, of course, now we also had the ability 266 00:16:56,200 --> 00:17:01,400 Speaker 1: to record that music onto physical media UH and as 267 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:04,560 Speaker 1: recording technology improved, there was a new interest in record 268 00:17:04,600 --> 00:17:08,560 Speaker 1: players and records, largely driven by teenagers. To be like 269 00:17:08,600 --> 00:17:11,359 Speaker 1: in the fifties or so, the kids would hear a 270 00:17:11,400 --> 00:17:13,240 Speaker 1: song on the radio, they would want to be able 271 00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:15,600 Speaker 1: to listen to that song whenever they liked so they 272 00:17:15,600 --> 00:17:18,560 Speaker 1: would rush out and by the record of that artist, 273 00:17:19,080 --> 00:17:21,639 Speaker 1: and the radio would become a key component in the 274 00:17:21,680 --> 00:17:26,719 Speaker 1: marketing of music. This would also shape music itself. In 275 00:17:26,720 --> 00:17:29,960 Speaker 1: the very early days, the limitations of recording meant you 276 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:33,119 Speaker 1: could fit around four minutes of audio on a single 277 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:38,159 Speaker 1: physical cylinder or disk, which meant that you couldn't write 278 00:17:38,560 --> 00:17:40,880 Speaker 1: music that would last longer than that, or you had 279 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:43,600 Speaker 1: to write music that could be divided up into four 280 00:17:43,720 --> 00:17:47,720 Speaker 1: minute chunks, and then you might sell several discs for 281 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:51,639 Speaker 1: longer pieces. But it meant that people started to settle 282 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:55,680 Speaker 1: on a on a length for music of around four 283 00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:59,400 Speaker 1: minutes per song or less, which is why to this 284 00:17:59,480 --> 00:18:02,320 Speaker 1: day the way we listen to music, like a lot 285 00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:05,840 Speaker 1: of our songs fall into that general range. It was 286 00:18:06,040 --> 00:18:09,960 Speaker 1: a technical limitation of the time that created a cultural 287 00:18:10,960 --> 00:18:15,320 Speaker 1: UH standard really for like a standard length of a song. 288 00:18:16,160 --> 00:18:19,600 Speaker 1: There are obviously exceptions to this, right you have the Ramones, 289 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:22,919 Speaker 1: where a four minutes song would be an epic and 290 00:18:22,960 --> 00:18:26,120 Speaker 1: then you have the late meat Loaf where a four 291 00:18:26,119 --> 00:18:31,240 Speaker 1: minute song would be the beginning of his fourteen minute song. 292 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:36,439 Speaker 1: So there are exceptions, but generally speaking, like this is 293 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:40,040 Speaker 1: what when I talk about how technology shaped music, this 294 00:18:40,080 --> 00:18:43,119 Speaker 1: is kind of what I'm talking about. The limitation of 295 00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:47,000 Speaker 1: only being able to record a few minutes of audio 296 00:18:47,080 --> 00:18:52,719 Speaker 1: per side is what shaped modern music and for songs 297 00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:55,840 Speaker 1: to be the length that they are now. As recording 298 00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:59,520 Speaker 1: techniques actually evolved, it became possible to record more content 299 00:18:59,720 --> 00:19:04,359 Speaker 1: per side of a record, so the limitation of four 300 00:19:04,400 --> 00:19:08,680 Speaker 1: minutes per side gradually faded away. This would end up 301 00:19:08,720 --> 00:19:12,160 Speaker 1: giving birth to the album because while you could record 302 00:19:12,240 --> 00:19:15,520 Speaker 1: a very long piece of music per side, and there 303 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:19,560 Speaker 1: were people who did it, especially for things like classical music, uh, 304 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:24,800 Speaker 1: you could also use this to create a collection of songs. However, 305 00:19:24,920 --> 00:19:27,560 Speaker 1: while that was going on, radio was swinging things back 306 00:19:27,560 --> 00:19:29,480 Speaker 1: to the early days of recording because you had the 307 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:33,679 Speaker 1: new musical entity of the radio single coming out around 308 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:36,560 Speaker 1: this time. Now, it was ninety nine when r C 309 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:42,680 Speaker 1: A Victor introduced the forty five rpm seven inch record. Now, 310 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:46,760 Speaker 1: these records, because of their size, the seven inch size 311 00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,000 Speaker 1: and their RPM speed of forty five revolutions per minute, 312 00:19:50,359 --> 00:19:52,679 Speaker 1: they could only hold a few minutes of music per side, 313 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:56,080 Speaker 1: just like the early records of the era. And then 314 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:59,600 Speaker 1: several things all kind of happened to make the forty 315 00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:02,879 Speaker 1: five popular. One was that, you know, you had a 316 00:20:02,880 --> 00:20:06,800 Speaker 1: lot of record players that could actually accommodate forty five. Uh, 317 00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:09,879 Speaker 1: they were less expensive than the larger thirty three and 318 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:14,520 Speaker 1: the third albums. They also happened to come out just 319 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:20,240 Speaker 1: before the rock and roll music revolution happened, and all 320 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:25,600 Speaker 1: of that came together to completely reshape the music industry. Uh. 321 00:20:25,640 --> 00:20:31,760 Speaker 1: And that's really where we started seeing the focus on 322 00:20:31,960 --> 00:20:35,080 Speaker 1: singles to the point where you've got some folks who 323 00:20:35,280 --> 00:20:40,359 Speaker 1: bemoaned that, where it was potentially something that limited the 324 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:44,080 Speaker 1: music industry. But it became a common practice to record 325 00:20:44,080 --> 00:20:47,679 Speaker 1: a musician or bands really popular song as the A 326 00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:51,240 Speaker 1: side of a forty five single, and then you use 327 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,080 Speaker 1: the other side, the B side, to include a lesser 328 00:20:54,160 --> 00:20:56,680 Speaker 1: known piece from that band. So sometimes you might get 329 00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:59,880 Speaker 1: a demo version of a song, which is kind of cool. 330 00:21:00,359 --> 00:21:02,719 Speaker 1: Or you get a song that wasn't included on the 331 00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,960 Speaker 1: full album that featured the A side single. That was 332 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:07,840 Speaker 1: really cool. It was like the only way you could 333 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:11,360 Speaker 1: get those songs. Typically the fort would have the same 334 00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:14,919 Speaker 1: songs that we're getting widespread radio play on the A side, 335 00:21:15,359 --> 00:21:18,359 Speaker 1: So again the radio acted as kind of the commercial 336 00:21:18,840 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 1: for the music. The A side was the product, the 337 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:25,800 Speaker 1: B side was some bonus material. Now, as the recording 338 00:21:25,800 --> 00:21:30,760 Speaker 1: industry evolved, certain companies consolidated, purchasing up smaller music labels. 339 00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:33,160 Speaker 1: R C A. Victor was one of those, with our 340 00:21:33,240 --> 00:21:36,640 Speaker 1: C A being famous for making radios and broadcast stations, 341 00:21:37,160 --> 00:21:41,080 Speaker 1: Victor being famous for phonographs. Then the two merged together. 342 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:44,560 Speaker 1: Some other really big recording companies shut down. The Thomas 343 00:21:44,680 --> 00:21:50,120 Speaker 1: Edison Company dissolved its recording division back in n UM. 344 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:52,160 Speaker 1: That was, you know, right at the Great Depression, so 345 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:54,399 Speaker 1: you know, it was kind of it was coinciding with 346 00:21:54,440 --> 00:21:56,560 Speaker 1: a time where people just didn't have the money to 347 00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:00,600 Speaker 1: purchase that kind of stuff. The burgeoning film industry also 348 00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:04,880 Speaker 1: got into the music industry. There were some smaller independent 349 00:22:04,960 --> 00:22:07,480 Speaker 1: labels that were establishing themselves around this time as well, 350 00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:12,240 Speaker 1: so starting to get really interesting. By the nineteen sixties, however, 351 00:22:12,359 --> 00:22:15,240 Speaker 1: the bigger labels were gobbling up all the smaller ones. 352 00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:19,080 Speaker 1: Um because there's always a bigger fish. So CBS, which 353 00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:22,960 Speaker 1: started off as a network of radio broadcast stations, acquired 354 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:26,119 Speaker 1: Columbia Records, which again was one of the big three 355 00:22:26,200 --> 00:22:31,159 Speaker 1: early early on that also acquired the American Record Corporation. 356 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,000 Speaker 1: Warner Brothers ended up purchasing ABC Records and also had 357 00:22:36,080 --> 00:22:41,840 Speaker 1: Warner Records. Then the company bought seven Arts and Reprise, Uh, 358 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:47,240 Speaker 1: then Atlantic, then Elektra Records labels. So yeah, you had 359 00:22:47,280 --> 00:22:52,040 Speaker 1: these big companies getting bigger, massive corporate corporations that were 360 00:22:52,080 --> 00:22:56,560 Speaker 1: shaping how the music biz worked, really fortifying themselves. Now, 361 00:22:56,600 --> 00:23:00,879 Speaker 1: for decades, musicians were pretty much limited by either the 362 00:23:00,960 --> 00:23:04,520 Speaker 1: huge conglomerates or they could work with a few smaller 363 00:23:04,560 --> 00:23:08,600 Speaker 1: independent labels if they wanted to record their music. Recording 364 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:15,200 Speaker 1: required specialized equipment, mixing expertise, dedicated space. It required the 365 00:23:15,240 --> 00:23:18,520 Speaker 1: ability to actually create a master recording and then to 366 00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:23,400 Speaker 1: duplicate that master recording onto copies. So it just wasn't 367 00:23:23,440 --> 00:23:26,440 Speaker 1: practical for most musicians to do all of this themselves. 368 00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:29,760 Speaker 1: Remember this isn't the days of physical media like there 369 00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:32,600 Speaker 1: was no digital approach here, You could not have a 370 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:37,760 Speaker 1: file representing a song, so you you really did need 371 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:42,399 Speaker 1: to lean on actual organizations to do this because they 372 00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:46,159 Speaker 1: had the capital to get all this equipment and expertise together. 373 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:49,960 Speaker 1: Then you actually had the process of taking recording and 374 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:54,040 Speaker 1: mass producing copies of it for sale, again well beyond 375 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:57,440 Speaker 1: the reach for individual performers. Then you had the marketing 376 00:23:57,440 --> 00:24:02,000 Speaker 1: and distribution side, like actually pro oding the material and 377 00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:05,680 Speaker 1: getting the material out to points of sale, another big 378 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:08,119 Speaker 1: limiting factor. Most people would not be able to do 379 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,680 Speaker 1: that on their own. So the symbiotic relationship between musicians 380 00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:15,120 Speaker 1: and record labels really solidified in this era. Uh and 381 00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:18,520 Speaker 1: I do say symbiotic, but depending upon the musician you 382 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,679 Speaker 1: might hear it was more parasitic. The record labels had 383 00:24:22,680 --> 00:24:24,600 Speaker 1: a lot of the power, and unless you reached a 384 00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:28,000 Speaker 1: particularly high level of fame, you probably didn't have a 385 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:33,600 Speaker 1: lot of leverage to lend yourself a really lucrative deal. Um. Now, 386 00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:35,560 Speaker 1: one way you could make money is to perform at 387 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:39,040 Speaker 1: live shows. Typically artists get a cut of the gate 388 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:42,919 Speaker 1: that is, the box officer ticket sales. They might also 389 00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:47,000 Speaker 1: set up merchandise or merch tables. They typically get most 390 00:24:47,080 --> 00:24:49,320 Speaker 1: of that as well, they have to pay out the 391 00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:53,080 Speaker 1: people who are working the tables, but otherwise, um, that's 392 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:58,320 Speaker 1: that's cash in the pockets of the performers. This particular 393 00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:03,080 Speaker 1: approach also requires a out of investment anyway, because you 394 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:06,040 Speaker 1: gotta get booked, right, you have to. You have to 395 00:25:06,200 --> 00:25:09,960 Speaker 1: establish a relationship with the venue and get an agreement 396 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:14,320 Speaker 1: to perform in a certain date and arrive at the 397 00:25:14,320 --> 00:25:18,080 Speaker 1: the the divide like how much of the ticket sales 398 00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:22,120 Speaker 1: goes to the venue versus the band. And then once 399 00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:24,680 Speaker 1: you start talking about bigger venues than you also are 400 00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:27,320 Speaker 1: usually talking about a booking agent, someone who is just 401 00:25:27,800 --> 00:25:32,720 Speaker 1: specifically focused on getting that stuff sewn up, because that 402 00:25:32,800 --> 00:25:34,680 Speaker 1: at by itself is a full time gig. I don't 403 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:38,000 Speaker 1: know how many of you out there have jobs or 404 00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:40,960 Speaker 1: activities that involve having to schedule stuff with other people, 405 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:44,159 Speaker 1: but you, if you have had to do it, you 406 00:25:44,200 --> 00:25:47,720 Speaker 1: know that that is an enormous amount of time committed 407 00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:51,119 Speaker 1: to getting that to work. Just imagine doing that for 408 00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:55,719 Speaker 1: a big band that's traveling, say across the United States 409 00:25:55,720 --> 00:26:00,560 Speaker 1: and establishing venues where they're going to perform, knowing that 410 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:05,520 Speaker 1: the really big ones typically get uh gobbled up pretty early, 411 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:07,880 Speaker 1: so you have to plan this out, you know, more 412 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,399 Speaker 1: than a year in advance in some cases. And of course, 413 00:26:11,440 --> 00:26:14,680 Speaker 1: over the last two years, the live performance industry took 414 00:26:14,720 --> 00:26:18,160 Speaker 1: a d an enormously heavy hit. Tons of venues were 415 00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:21,080 Speaker 1: shut down during the pandemic for months at a time, 416 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:24,960 Speaker 1: so for about a year the revenue stream was essentially gone, 417 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:28,440 Speaker 1: and even after that it was you know, it was 418 00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:31,160 Speaker 1: all dependent upon where you were. And since the vast 419 00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:34,040 Speaker 1: majority of musicians make their living by playing live shows, 420 00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:39,840 Speaker 1: things got really tough for musicians. Now. Of course, record 421 00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:43,400 Speaker 1: contracts earned musicians money too, It's not like they're recording 422 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:47,160 Speaker 1: for free. The big way to earn money through records 423 00:26:47,680 --> 00:26:52,400 Speaker 1: is through royalties. Now this gets pretty complicated, particularly since 424 00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:55,359 Speaker 1: there are different kinds of royalties, Like you know, I 425 00:26:55,400 --> 00:26:58,800 Speaker 1: mentioned their songwriter royalties for example, but there are lots 426 00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:02,880 Speaker 1: of different types of royalty. Now, what a royalty is Essentially, 427 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 1: it's a payment made to the rights owner of a 428 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:09,560 Speaker 1: particular work for the licensed use of that work. The 429 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:12,439 Speaker 1: licensed use can include all sorts of stuff. It can 430 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:16,399 Speaker 1: include radio airplay, it can include the use of music 431 00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:20,680 Speaker 1: and television or movies. It can include recording, it can 432 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:24,280 Speaker 1: include streaming um with artists who have signed with labels, 433 00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:26,360 Speaker 1: we're talking about a percentage of the fee that gets 434 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:29,479 Speaker 1: paid to the label in return for the use of 435 00:27:29,520 --> 00:27:32,440 Speaker 1: that music. So, in other words, the way this works 436 00:27:32,440 --> 00:27:36,040 Speaker 1: as whoever wants the music, whether it's a person walking 437 00:27:36,080 --> 00:27:40,479 Speaker 1: into an old school record store or you know, the 438 00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,760 Speaker 1: person who's trying to fill out the the soundtrack to 439 00:27:43,800 --> 00:27:47,080 Speaker 1: the next Quentin Tarantino movie, they go to the record label, 440 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:49,439 Speaker 1: they pay for the use of that music, and then 441 00:27:49,440 --> 00:27:52,520 Speaker 1: the record label takes a cut of this, and then 442 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:56,000 Speaker 1: a percentage of that amount that was paid to the 443 00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,840 Speaker 1: record label then gets paid out to the rights holder 444 00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:02,359 Speaker 1: or artist. But it doesn't really get as simple as that. 445 00:28:02,520 --> 00:28:05,840 Speaker 1: Usually artists get what's called an advance. This is a 446 00:28:05,880 --> 00:28:09,320 Speaker 1: sum of money that's paid to the artist upon some deliverable. 447 00:28:09,400 --> 00:28:12,080 Speaker 1: For example, it could be when an artist signs a 448 00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:16,000 Speaker 1: contract or completes an album recording. Then the artist gets 449 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:20,920 Speaker 1: a payout, but that payout is actually counted against future royalties, 450 00:28:21,480 --> 00:28:24,159 Speaker 1: and royalties are a percentage of each individual sales. So 451 00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:27,119 Speaker 1: before you start earning lots of royalties, you first have 452 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:29,920 Speaker 1: to recoup the money that the label spent on you. 453 00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,439 Speaker 1: With the advance. This is way easier to understand if 454 00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:37,399 Speaker 1: we actually use hypothetical example. So let's say that my 455 00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:40,960 Speaker 1: band Johnny and the tech Heads gets a ten thous 456 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,600 Speaker 1: dollar advance on our new album, So that ten grand 457 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,640 Speaker 1: is ours to keep unless we've done something really silly 458 00:28:47,720 --> 00:28:50,080 Speaker 1: like signed a contract that requires us to pay back 459 00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:53,480 Speaker 1: in advance if we don't recoup the expense. No one 460 00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:57,520 Speaker 1: should ever agree to do that. There's a reason why 461 00:28:57,520 --> 00:28:59,840 Speaker 1: it's good to get a lawyer to look over contracts, 462 00:28:59,840 --> 00:29:02,160 Speaker 1: but where you assigned them. But let's say our royalty 463 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,720 Speaker 1: payment is a nickel per unit sold, so five cents 464 00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,640 Speaker 1: every time they sell a unit, and it doesn't matter 465 00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:10,280 Speaker 1: to me what the unit is in this case. This 466 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:14,720 Speaker 1: is just a hypothetical example. Now, we don't actually earn 467 00:29:14,760 --> 00:29:18,400 Speaker 1: any royalties until we've recouped the amount of money the 468 00:29:18,480 --> 00:29:22,520 Speaker 1: labels spin on us in its advance. That means we're 469 00:29:22,640 --> 00:29:26,120 Speaker 1: kind of paying off that ten thousand dollars one nickel 470 00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:28,400 Speaker 1: at a time. That means we would have to hit 471 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:32,320 Speaker 1: two hundred thousand units sold before we started earning royalties, 472 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,840 Speaker 1: and we would start earning royalties starting with copy two 473 00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,400 Speaker 1: hundred thousand and one. So Once the advance is recouped, 474 00:29:39,680 --> 00:29:43,920 Speaker 1: the royalty checks can start coming in. Also, ten grand 475 00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:45,920 Speaker 1: is a lot of money, but you're usually talking about 476 00:29:45,920 --> 00:29:48,760 Speaker 1: splitting that with a bunch of different people. There's the band, 477 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,760 Speaker 1: You probably have a manager, Uh, there's a producer that 478 00:29:52,920 --> 00:29:55,520 Speaker 1: usually you have to pay the producer's royalty out of 479 00:29:55,560 --> 00:29:58,680 Speaker 1: your own royalties. And of course we're talking about payments 480 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,800 Speaker 1: that don't have tax with holdings. So that means that 481 00:30:01,840 --> 00:30:04,000 Speaker 1: you really need to be holding onto that cash because 482 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:05,960 Speaker 1: you're gonna be spending some of that to pay taxes 483 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:08,880 Speaker 1: because nothing was withheld, so you're gonna owe it at 484 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:11,440 Speaker 1: the end of the year. Uh, That ten grand or 485 00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:14,080 Speaker 1: whatever gets willed down pretty quickly. So that's one of 486 00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:16,520 Speaker 1: the really big reasons that a lot of bands go 487 00:30:16,600 --> 00:30:20,360 Speaker 1: on tours and do lots of live shows. The albums 488 00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:23,120 Speaker 1: can get fans, Fans come to the shows, and that's 489 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:26,080 Speaker 1: where the musicians really typically earn a lot of cash, 490 00:30:26,560 --> 00:30:29,920 Speaker 1: plus of course they can connect with their fan base. 491 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:32,719 Speaker 1: In most cases, the record label is going to keep 492 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,600 Speaker 1: around or more of the revenue from albums and songs sold, 493 00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:40,000 Speaker 1: with the artists getting the rest in royalties. Again, once 494 00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:43,920 Speaker 1: the advance is recouped In return, the record label handles 495 00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,480 Speaker 1: all the distribution and marketing for the musicians, and that's 496 00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:49,000 Speaker 1: the big trade off, all right. When we come back, 497 00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:51,760 Speaker 1: we'll talk about how the music industry has changed even 498 00:30:51,800 --> 00:31:03,400 Speaker 1: more in more recent years. So with the rise of 499 00:31:03,440 --> 00:31:06,440 Speaker 1: the Internet, a lot of new ways to earn money 500 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:11,560 Speaker 1: have emerged for musicians. Musicians can make use of tools 501 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:16,840 Speaker 1: like band camp or Patreon. They can sell music directly 502 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:20,560 Speaker 1: to their fans or invite their fans to help support 503 00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:25,040 Speaker 1: their work. Patreon can be done in a way where 504 00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:31,400 Speaker 1: people are subscribing monthly to an artist, or Patreon can 505 00:31:31,440 --> 00:31:33,880 Speaker 1: be done so that every time something new is released 506 00:31:34,480 --> 00:31:38,360 Speaker 1: then the supporters can paid have access to that thing. 507 00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:43,719 Speaker 1: So it creates a more direct pathway between artists and 508 00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:47,680 Speaker 1: audience and bypasses a lot of the other stuff that 509 00:31:47,720 --> 00:31:51,280 Speaker 1: you would typically have to go through. Uh. Musicians can 510 00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:56,520 Speaker 1: also try to bankroll a recording by launching a crowdfunding campaign. 511 00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:59,800 Speaker 1: There's something like Kickstarter or indie go Go. And the 512 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,480 Speaker 1: aliferation of digital recording equipment and software has really opened 513 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,240 Speaker 1: up the opportunity for musicians to take on a lot 514 00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:10,760 Speaker 1: of traditional recording work themselves. Um So, in other words, 515 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,360 Speaker 1: the things that we're limiting factors back in the early days, 516 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,480 Speaker 1: the fact that only these big companies had access to 517 00:32:17,640 --> 00:32:21,120 Speaker 1: recording equipment. That's no longer the case, right, you can 518 00:32:21,160 --> 00:32:25,920 Speaker 1: go out and buy it's fairly decent recording equipment for 519 00:32:26,040 --> 00:32:28,720 Speaker 1: not that much money. Not in the grand scheme of things. 520 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:30,840 Speaker 1: I mean, it still is going to cost you probably 521 00:32:30,880 --> 00:32:33,480 Speaker 1: a few thousand dollars, which, don't get me wrong, that's 522 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:36,600 Speaker 1: a lot, but it's peanuts compared to what it was 523 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,800 Speaker 1: back in the old days, where there just wasn't that option. 524 00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:43,760 Speaker 1: So you can do a lot of this stuff yourself, 525 00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:48,200 Speaker 1: although it does still require expertise and skill in you know, 526 00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:53,360 Speaker 1: executing it, and that goes from everything from the playing 527 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:58,280 Speaker 1: of the music to the recording process through the mixing process. 528 00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:01,760 Speaker 1: All of that wires a lot of work. So it's 529 00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:06,400 Speaker 1: not like it's uh, plug in blay, but it's a lot. 530 00:33:06,760 --> 00:33:09,360 Speaker 1: It's a lot more within reach than it used to be. 531 00:33:10,280 --> 00:33:13,200 Speaker 1: But the technology that really has dramatically disrupted the music 532 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:17,640 Speaker 1: industry over the last decade or so is definitely streaming. 533 00:33:18,640 --> 00:33:22,920 Speaker 1: So let's talk about what streaming actually is. Essentially, it's 534 00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:26,560 Speaker 1: accessing media in real time. Although we could pick some 535 00:33:26,640 --> 00:33:29,479 Speaker 1: knits with that definition and the use of the phrase 536 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:33,000 Speaker 1: real time, but it gets across the meaning. So instead 537 00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: of downloading a song to a device, you use some 538 00:33:36,680 --> 00:33:39,479 Speaker 1: sort of service. It could be an app, maybe a 539 00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:43,680 Speaker 1: browser based service to listen to music streaming from a 540 00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:48,360 Speaker 1: web server somewhere out there to your local device, and 541 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:51,200 Speaker 1: your device receives the music in the form of digital 542 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,720 Speaker 1: data sent pretty much like any other data that would 543 00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,520 Speaker 1: be sent across a computer network. So it's kind of 544 00:33:57,560 --> 00:34:02,120 Speaker 1: like radio, but it's on demand and it's not using 545 00:34:02,120 --> 00:34:05,960 Speaker 1: traditional over the air radio broadcasts and instead it's using 546 00:34:06,480 --> 00:34:11,239 Speaker 1: essentially zeros and ones coming from a server to your device. Now, 547 00:34:11,239 --> 00:34:13,439 Speaker 1: there are a lot of places where we could start 548 00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:17,680 Speaker 1: our story about streaming. For example, way back in when 549 00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:21,560 Speaker 1: pretty much most of the population really didn't understand what 550 00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:26,040 Speaker 1: the heck the Internet was, you had the Internet Underground 551 00:34:26,200 --> 00:34:30,040 Speaker 1: Music Archive or i u m A. This was created 552 00:34:30,040 --> 00:34:32,640 Speaker 1: by some students at the University of California, Santa Cruz. 553 00:34:33,400 --> 00:34:37,279 Speaker 1: They launched an organization to give independent artists away to 554 00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:41,200 Speaker 1: get their music two fans. So again, like if you 555 00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,480 Speaker 1: didn't have a deal with a big record label that 556 00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:47,400 Speaker 1: could distribute and and market your music. This was a 557 00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:51,040 Speaker 1: way where you could bypass all that. This was one 558 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:54,239 Speaker 1: of those very early demonstrations of how the Internet can 559 00:34:54,360 --> 00:34:59,799 Speaker 1: democratize content distribution and bypass the traditional model which has 560 00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:05,160 Speaker 1: massive media companies, you know, being the gatekeepers. Which you 561 00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:08,480 Speaker 1: might guess that massive media companies weren't super crazy about 562 00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:11,560 Speaker 1: this idea, and you'd be right, because it turns out 563 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:15,120 Speaker 1: if if you know, if you end up accumulating a 564 00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:19,359 Speaker 1: lot of power, you're not crazy about giving that up. Now. 565 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:23,200 Speaker 1: I find the I U M A story really impressive 566 00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:26,360 Speaker 1: because this was before the MP three format had really 567 00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:31,680 Speaker 1: taken off. Uh. You know, MB three is a type 568 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:37,560 Speaker 1: of of audio file where you're using compression to reduce 569 00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:42,799 Speaker 1: the file size. Um not audio compression but file size compression. 570 00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,120 Speaker 1: Two different things here, although there can be audio compression 571 00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:48,439 Speaker 1: as part of it, because the way it B three 572 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:52,920 Speaker 1: works is that, at least philosophically, the way it works 573 00:35:53,719 --> 00:35:55,400 Speaker 1: is that there's there are a lot of things in 574 00:35:55,520 --> 00:35:59,839 Speaker 1: sound that humans cannot directly perceive. Are are a bill 575 00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:05,000 Speaker 1: need to hear has limitations, and so the philosophy behind 576 00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:08,920 Speaker 1: MP three is that you drop any sounds that humans 577 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:12,200 Speaker 1: would not be able to hear. Anyway, and then you 578 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:16,279 Speaker 1: can reduce the file size that way. I'm oversimplifying, but 579 00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:19,720 Speaker 1: that's generally the thought process behind MP three. It's a 580 00:36:19,719 --> 00:36:26,520 Speaker 1: psychoacoustic approach to figuring out what information is most necessary 581 00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,040 Speaker 1: so that you keep that and you get rid of 582 00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:33,800 Speaker 1: everything else anyway, Because the MP three had not really 583 00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:38,879 Speaker 1: become a big deal yet. In the files were often 584 00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,560 Speaker 1: in formats like wave or ai f F and those 585 00:36:42,600 --> 00:36:45,560 Speaker 1: can be much, much, much bigger than MP three files. 586 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:47,239 Speaker 1: And you have to keep in mind that this was 587 00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,080 Speaker 1: also back in the day when folks were using dial 588 00:36:50,160 --> 00:36:54,680 Speaker 1: up internet. You know, it was pretty limited bandwidth. Heck, 589 00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:58,680 Speaker 1: just getting an image to load could take the better 590 00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:02,200 Speaker 1: part of a minute. So this was not streaming. This 591 00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:04,240 Speaker 1: was not the days of streaming. This was all about 592 00:37:04,280 --> 00:37:07,440 Speaker 1: downloading files. Nick could take a really long time to 593 00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:10,240 Speaker 1: download a single file. But this was a stepping stone 594 00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:15,000 Speaker 1: toward streaming. Another really big stepping stone was the development 595 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:18,399 Speaker 1: of Napster. In fact, a later service with the name 596 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:21,400 Speaker 1: of Napster would become a streaming music service, but the 597 00:37:21,400 --> 00:37:25,719 Speaker 1: original incarnation of Napster was not streaming. It was a 598 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:30,600 Speaker 1: peer to peer file sharing network that specifically focused on 599 00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:33,719 Speaker 1: sharing music files. Now by this time, by the time 600 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:36,600 Speaker 1: Napster came around, which was the late nineties, the MP 601 00:37:36,719 --> 00:37:39,680 Speaker 1: three format was established, which was great because it allowed 602 00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:42,600 Speaker 1: users to compress audio files down to a fraction of 603 00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:45,640 Speaker 1: their raw size, and that made it much easier to 604 00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:49,200 Speaker 1: transfer those files over networks. Also, we were starting to 605 00:37:49,239 --> 00:37:52,560 Speaker 1: get better connections to the Internet. Not everyone had it. 606 00:37:52,640 --> 00:37:54,800 Speaker 1: I had a dial up Internet connection for a really 607 00:37:54,840 --> 00:37:59,319 Speaker 1: long time, but eventually we got there. Of course, if 608 00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,279 Speaker 1: you really impressed music a lot, like if you use 609 00:38:02,360 --> 00:38:05,000 Speaker 1: a very strong file compression, you could affect the sound 610 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,960 Speaker 1: quality to the point where it was noticeable. But you know, 611 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:11,440 Speaker 1: if you were careful, you could find the right balance 612 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:16,960 Speaker 1: between file size reduction and uh, not affecting the quality 613 00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:20,960 Speaker 1: too much. Now, peer to peer systems are not inherently wrong, 614 00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:25,560 Speaker 1: they're not inherently illegal, But it was impossible to deny 615 00:38:25,640 --> 00:38:29,280 Speaker 1: that the majority of the file transfer traffic across Napster 616 00:38:30,160 --> 00:38:34,040 Speaker 1: was with copyrighted music files, and that the people who 617 00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:37,239 Speaker 1: were sharing them didn't have the right to do so. 618 00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:40,360 Speaker 1: So folks might use a computer to rip music files 619 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:42,400 Speaker 1: from a CD. They put a c D and a 620 00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:45,920 Speaker 1: CD ROM drive, use a program to pull the music 621 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,480 Speaker 1: off the c d rum drive, convert them into MP 622 00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:53,480 Speaker 1: three file formats, and then store them in a Napster 623 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:56,279 Speaker 1: folder and then make them available for other people on 624 00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:59,920 Speaker 1: the peer to peer network to download those files. Meanwhile, 625 00:39:00,400 --> 00:39:02,440 Speaker 1: the people who were doing this, we're also looking for 626 00:39:02,640 --> 00:39:06,720 Speaker 1: music that was available on other people's machines. Napster became 627 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:10,680 Speaker 1: a haven of music trading and theft. Now in some cases, 628 00:39:10,680 --> 00:39:13,200 Speaker 1: folks were using it to find songs that you literally 629 00:39:13,239 --> 00:39:16,480 Speaker 1: could not find in other places, Like you could not 630 00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:19,520 Speaker 1: go out and buy this music because it wasn't available 631 00:39:19,560 --> 00:39:23,640 Speaker 1: for purchase. So things like bootleg albums and live recordings 632 00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:27,600 Speaker 1: that otherwise didn't exist commercially, those were getting a lot 633 00:39:27,640 --> 00:39:30,000 Speaker 1: of trade there too. Now, just because something is not 634 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:34,680 Speaker 1: available commercially doesn't mean that you have the right to 635 00:39:34,680 --> 00:39:38,200 Speaker 1: to seek out recordings of it. But still, like you 636 00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:41,279 Speaker 1: could see why people would justify it, right. They literally say, like, 637 00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:43,040 Speaker 1: there's no way for me to buy this, and I 638 00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:45,840 Speaker 1: really wanted I wasn't able to experience it in person, 639 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:48,640 Speaker 1: So this is what I'm going to do. I can 640 00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:52,840 Speaker 1: understand that philosophy. Heck, I've done it myself in the past. Um, 641 00:39:52,920 --> 00:39:55,880 Speaker 1: it's very frustrating experience to be in. But a lot 642 00:39:55,920 --> 00:39:58,120 Speaker 1: of folks, you know, they were using it just to 643 00:39:58,120 --> 00:40:00,839 Speaker 1: get hold of a song, or an album, or even 644 00:40:00,880 --> 00:40:03,920 Speaker 1: an entire music library without having to pay for it. 645 00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:07,480 Speaker 1: I'm not saying everyone who used napster was stealing music 646 00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:11,000 Speaker 1: left right and center, but enough people were to make 647 00:40:11,040 --> 00:40:16,000 Speaker 1: it a real problem. This happened to coincide with a 648 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:21,440 Speaker 1: dip in music sales, and that sent the recording industry 649 00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,640 Speaker 1: into a frothy rage. I was gonna say a tizzy, 650 00:40:24,680 --> 00:40:28,799 Speaker 1: but it was way more than a tizzy. Now, was 651 00:40:28,880 --> 00:40:32,200 Speaker 1: that causation or just correlation? I think there was a 652 00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:35,080 Speaker 1: lot of correlation here. I don't think it was pure causation. 653 00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:40,880 Speaker 1: But again, when you've got a multibillion dollar industry and 654 00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:45,120 Speaker 1: they see a dip, they want very quickly to identify 655 00:40:45,239 --> 00:40:47,840 Speaker 1: the cause of that dip and to eliminate it, because 656 00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:51,600 Speaker 1: you know, corporations are all designed to make as much 657 00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:55,040 Speaker 1: money as they possibly can. So in this case, you 658 00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:59,200 Speaker 1: had a dip in music sales and a rise in 659 00:40:59,239 --> 00:41:02,799 Speaker 1: the use of peer to peer networks, specifically Napster, and 660 00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:06,080 Speaker 1: the conclusion was, Napster is killing the music industry, so 661 00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:08,960 Speaker 1: we must nuke it from orbit, because it's the only 662 00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:14,120 Speaker 1: way to be sure. So before long, Napster and a 663 00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:17,920 Speaker 1: lot of its users were the targets of multiple lawsuits, 664 00:41:17,920 --> 00:41:22,680 Speaker 1: some of which alleged that Napster had caused massive revenue losses. Now, 665 00:41:22,760 --> 00:41:24,800 Speaker 1: I would say that that is an argument that is 666 00:41:24,840 --> 00:41:29,520 Speaker 1: impossible to support in any quantifiable way. Uh. I mean 667 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:32,080 Speaker 1: you could you could say that, yes, it had to 668 00:41:32,120 --> 00:41:34,440 Speaker 1: have some sort of impact. I mean, it's common sense 669 00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:38,279 Speaker 1: that folks getting access to music for free is going 670 00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:42,080 Speaker 1: to hurt music sales. But it's impossible to actually put 671 00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:46,080 Speaker 1: a quantifiable number on that because you have no way 672 00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:48,600 Speaker 1: of knowing how many of those folks would have actually 673 00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:52,640 Speaker 1: bought an album or a single in the first place 674 00:41:52,680 --> 00:41:55,839 Speaker 1: if there had been no Napster. You know, there's there's 675 00:41:55,880 --> 00:41:57,880 Speaker 1: no way of saying. You can't say, oh, well, if 676 00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:00,880 Speaker 1: they hadn't stolen this music, they would have bought a 677 00:42:00,960 --> 00:42:04,640 Speaker 1: legit copy. You don't know that it's possible that they 678 00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:08,920 Speaker 1: just would have gone without. But it was still plenty 679 00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:11,440 Speaker 1: enough for the music industry to go nuclear on not 680 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:13,879 Speaker 1: just Napster, but all the folks who had been using 681 00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:18,640 Speaker 1: UH services like Napster to download music illegally and it 682 00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:21,640 Speaker 1: was a really really ugly time. Napster itself, in its 683 00:42:21,680 --> 00:42:27,160 Speaker 1: original form anyway, shut down by two thousand one. The 684 00:42:27,200 --> 00:42:30,200 Speaker 1: brightest stars burned out the quickest, I guess. So. In 685 00:42:30,239 --> 00:42:33,279 Speaker 1: the early two thousand's we saw the first emergence of 686 00:42:33,440 --> 00:42:37,160 Speaker 1: legitimate digital music stores, you know, ones where you could 687 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:41,440 Speaker 1: actually purchase a song and uh and money would go 688 00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:46,560 Speaker 1: presumably to the record label behind that song. In the 689 00:42:46,600 --> 00:42:48,759 Speaker 1: early early days, most of these were operated by the 690 00:42:48,800 --> 00:42:52,439 Speaker 1: individual music labels. It would be a little bit later 691 00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:56,200 Speaker 1: before we would get the iTunes store. Uh. The iTunes 692 00:42:56,239 --> 00:43:00,120 Speaker 1: Store didn't actually launch until two thousand three, and there 693 00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:02,080 Speaker 1: was no denying that this was, at least in part 694 00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:04,560 Speaker 1: a response to the problems that the industry had seen 695 00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:08,279 Speaker 1: with services like Napster. Apple was stepping in saying, you 696 00:43:08,320 --> 00:43:11,719 Speaker 1: don't want people just stealing your music, but people do 697 00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:15,319 Speaker 1: want access to digital copies of your music. How do 698 00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:18,000 Speaker 1: you manage this? Tell you what, Let us manage it 699 00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:22,760 Speaker 1: for you. And this was like a huge, huge step 700 00:43:22,800 --> 00:43:24,759 Speaker 1: forward for Apple. It would end up being one of 701 00:43:24,800 --> 00:43:28,759 Speaker 1: their most brilliant ideas they came up with when it 702 00:43:28,760 --> 00:43:33,320 Speaker 1: comes to ways to make more money. Now. Initially, these 703 00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:36,920 Speaker 1: music label stores they didn't offer any streaming capabilities either. 704 00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:40,759 Speaker 1: Customers would go to the stores purchase specific songs or 705 00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:44,319 Speaker 1: albums and then download those files to their computers or 706 00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:47,880 Speaker 1: other devices. Of course, in the earliest days, we're mostly 707 00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:51,040 Speaker 1: just talking about downloading to computers. Then you would have 708 00:43:51,080 --> 00:43:55,200 Speaker 1: to actually use a physical cable to connect something like 709 00:43:55,239 --> 00:43:58,120 Speaker 1: an MP three player, you know, like an iPod to 710 00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:01,719 Speaker 1: your computer, and you would transfer or music over the 711 00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:05,400 Speaker 1: cable that way primitive, right, you know, this was again 712 00:44:05,440 --> 00:44:08,920 Speaker 1: before you had these devices that had WiFi capability or 713 00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:12,560 Speaker 1: cellular capability built into them. Oh and by the way, 714 00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,200 Speaker 1: to get off on a little bit of a tangent, 715 00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:16,640 Speaker 1: this was also the time where you learned very quickly 716 00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:21,239 Speaker 1: that Apple was great at creating a uh AN experience 717 00:44:21,280 --> 00:44:24,560 Speaker 1: that worked within a specific ecosystem. So if you had 718 00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:28,120 Speaker 1: a Mac computer and an iPod and you used iTunes, 719 00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:31,120 Speaker 1: it was all pretty seamless. It was easy to do. 720 00:44:31,239 --> 00:44:34,400 Speaker 1: It was easy to update your iPod. Like if you 721 00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:37,760 Speaker 1: bought new music on iTunes and it went to your computer, 722 00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:41,040 Speaker 1: you could update your iPod pretty easily by connecting it 723 00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:44,560 Speaker 1: to your Mac. If, however, you owned a PC and 724 00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:47,080 Speaker 1: you used iTunes for PC and you had an iPod, 725 00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:50,520 Speaker 1: it was a nightmare. Speaking of someone from who you 726 00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:54,799 Speaker 1: know had that experience, it was terrible. Um and and 727 00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:57,520 Speaker 1: you learned very quickly that the ecosystem was going to 728 00:44:57,600 --> 00:45:00,520 Speaker 1: be a big deal in the future or of tech. 729 00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:03,640 Speaker 1: And that is another one, right the getting caught in 730 00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:08,680 Speaker 1: a specific ecosystem where if you want to kind of 731 00:45:08,719 --> 00:45:13,840 Speaker 1: explore beyond it, you end up getting punished for it. Anyway, 732 00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:16,800 Speaker 1: as digital music stores were taking shape, you had a 733 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:19,719 Speaker 1: few different groups working on pieces of tech that collectively 734 00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:23,759 Speaker 1: would allow for music streaming. Uh. And that is where 735 00:45:23,800 --> 00:45:26,480 Speaker 1: we're going to leave off when we come back for 736 00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:28,959 Speaker 1: our next episode. In this we will start picking up 737 00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:33,280 Speaker 1: at the birth of musical streaming, how that got started, 738 00:45:33,800 --> 00:45:37,120 Speaker 1: and then how that in turn had a big impact 739 00:45:37,239 --> 00:45:40,799 Speaker 1: on the music industry and how people make money. We're 740 00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:44,320 Speaker 1: going to explore issues like is there money in streaming. 741 00:45:44,360 --> 00:45:48,440 Speaker 1: You've probably heard people complain that they're getting pennies on 742 00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:52,200 Speaker 1: the dollar because of streaming, and that their revenue has 743 00:45:52,239 --> 00:45:54,440 Speaker 1: taken a huge hit in the wake of streaming. So 744 00:45:54,440 --> 00:45:56,600 Speaker 1: we're gonna look at that and see what's going on there. 745 00:45:57,320 --> 00:45:59,919 Speaker 1: We're gonna take a look at the big streaming serve 746 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:03,799 Speaker 1: us is out there and how they are performing, and uh, 747 00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:06,439 Speaker 1: maybe even start talking about what's next. I mean, we've 748 00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:09,760 Speaker 1: have seen kind of a resurgence in interest in physical media. 749 00:46:10,440 --> 00:46:14,319 Speaker 1: Is that going to be more of a thing or 750 00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,280 Speaker 1: is it just a little, you know, a little interesting 751 00:46:17,280 --> 00:46:19,920 Speaker 1: flash in the pan. Those are things we will talk 752 00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:23,240 Speaker 1: about in our next episode. For now, we're gonna wrap 753 00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:25,760 Speaker 1: this up. If you have suggestions for topics I should 754 00:46:25,760 --> 00:46:28,080 Speaker 1: cover on future episodes of tech Stuff, please reach out 755 00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:30,600 Speaker 1: to me. The best way to do that is on Twitter. 756 00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:33,400 Speaker 1: The handle for the show is text Stuff hs W. 757 00:46:34,320 --> 00:46:43,160 Speaker 1: I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff is 758 00:46:43,200 --> 00:46:46,320 Speaker 1: an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from my 759 00:46:46,480 --> 00:46:50,080 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 760 00:46:50,200 --> 00:46:52,160 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.