The fact that the music industry has come from far must be greatly appreciated. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph an astounding machine that could record music and play it back. This great invention made it possible for quality music to be listened to in any home. The vinyl long play replaced the phonograph developed by the Columbia Records. Long playing record coming to existence was a huge step for music sound recording and for the listeners as it allowed multiple songs on one record. Previously one could only get a short piece of the music onto one side of a record but since its development one could get a whole classical piece on one side of a record.

Tapes revolutionized the music industry in the 1950s. Ability of the tape to be edited and played backwards took music to the next level. It could be used in passage cars to play cool and soothing music making journeys and road trips pretty cool. In 1979, the Sony Walkman became an absolute staple for portable music players (Gay, Hall, Janes, Mackey, & Negus, 1997). It was also an inspiration to record labels to record their music, listeners were able to take their music with them whenever and wherever at the same time giving artists the ability to offer a whole artistic package apart from the songs.

In 1982, CDs came to be and by 1988 CD sales eclipsed leading to high sales of music. In 1999 software like napster paved the way for music piracy. Sale of CDs went down considerably as people turned on to the internet to listen to music. This triggered the closure of some of the sites due to legal battles but this did not stop sharing of music through the internet as people continued streaming live. Subscription models were introduced in an attempt to solve piracy with limited music libraries which did not work leading to the introduction of licensing a vast library of music.  Instead of buying and owning songs and libraries a monthly fee would be paid for accessing all the music in the world.

Growing up in the village as a lover of music was not easy but listening to soothing music in tapes always restored some peace of mind. The ability of the tape to be reconnected, cut and played backwards made it fun as one would listen to his favorite song again and gain. Their affordability was an added advantage not forgetting their availability bearing in mind most of the people in the village owned them thus one could opt to borrow from a friend instead of buying.

In conclusion, love of music is beyond any explanation which enticed me into watching this video to know how far the music industry has come and appreciate those who were involved.

References

Gay, P. d., Hall, S., Janes, L., Mackey, H., & Negus, K. (1997). Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman. The British Journal of Sociology, 1-40.

Music Evolution