How Does The Music Industry Today Compare To That Of By-Gone Eras?

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How does the music industry of today compare to that of by gone eras? Well let us go back to the approximate birth of the industry, to a time when composers and musicians occupied the homes of many rich folk and clergy men as servants in return for food and board. They were a lot like maids in that respect although their duties did not align. In the 18th century, as pianos became more and more widespread among the wealthy these composers were hit with the sudden realisation that their music could be sold in the form of sheet music and that they could become self sufficient, but, that they would need someone to handle business and production (the publisher) so as to free their mind for composition, and so the industry began. The onset of piracy was almost immediate to this as the copying and sharing of this sheet music, amongst the wealthy of all people, came to pass. Let us not forget that the music industry as a whole is not just the music itself but the media or format in which to play it and the advent of mass produced recordings in the early 20th century was negatively perceived by the publishers and composers alike, as not only a threat to sheet music sales (which no doubt it was), but also as a threat to the numbers who gathered for live performances. In the coming years the publishers would swing these recordings in their favour ala licence fees and as a unit it would become the largest source of revenue in the industry. There have been many new media and technological advancements in the 20th century, the dawn of broadcast radio for one was met with negative reaction by publishers and later became a great method for the promotion of recordings. As referred, it was also in the best interest of developers of technology to present new media formats to the public and when home recording reel to reel tapes and later cassettes recorders were released

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