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Danielle Cancelli
PHIL 444
December 16, 2010
Music and Technology
There have been many technology advances over the years that have improved the lifestyles of many people and civilizations all over the world. Technology advances have made it possible to improve many different aspects of life. There have been medical, communication, transportation, entertainment, and many more types of technology innovations. Entertainment advancements have made it possible for people to make their lives more exciting and enjoyable. One of the biggest pieces of the entertainment world is music. Music and the devices used to play that music have all evolved progressively over the years.
The very first type of music came from the phonograph in 1877, and was used until the 1880s. It was invented by Thomas Edison and was originally a device that was made to record and play sound. The earliest phonographs were recorded onto tinfoil sheets that were placed around a cylinder. The sound that was being recorded was sent through a horn that was attached to the device. The vibrations from the sound caused a stylus to press indentions into the foil as the cylinder turned. The indentions reserved the sound. In order to play back the sound that was recorded, a crank was turned and the stylus would fall into the grooves that were made previously. The sound was then played back through the horn. In the mid 1880s, the tinfoil was replaced with wax. Emile Berliner patented his own wax-cylinder creation and called it the Gramophone. It was with the wax cylinders that they were able to mass-produce. People were now able to more easily obtain these types of devices, because there were more available with the mass production. The phonograph was a very successful innovation that became the stepping-stone for the evolution of music and music devices.
Berliner continued to experiment after his invention of the gramophone. In 1892, he invented and started to produce disc records. Originally, his disc records were not of great quality. They were even worse than the sound quality of the cylinder machines. With time, he improved the sound quality of the discs so that they would appeal more to the public. They became popular because of the ability to more easily mass-produce them. They also took up less storage space because they were not so bulky. Disc records were cheaper than the cylinder machines, so more people were willing to purchase them. With the invention of the disc record came many more inventions that improved the quality of music. In the 1940s, vinyl records were used, which quickly became one of the most preferred types of music mediums, even as new things were invented over the years. In the 1960s, portable record players were invented. In the 1980s, turntable records were invented. The disc record was an innovation that made music more portable and manageable for consumers.
As the disc records quickly became popular, a man name Bill Lear went a different direction and invented a new form of music recording. In 1965, he developed a type of cartridge that held 8 tracks. They used a magnetic tape that held the sound recordings. Each one held about 45 minutes worth of songs. The downfall of having a tape was that the tape was much more difficult to thread, rather than just placing a disk onto the phonograph player. It was often knocked out of alignment and the quality wasn’t always very great. Many times the player would eat the tape and the music would be destroyed. The positive aspect of having a tape was that it was much more portable than the larger disks. In 1963, Philips introduced the cassette tape. It used similar techniques as the 8-track tape. Just like the 8-track, it also used a magnetic tape that held the sound recordings. The only difference was that it was a little smaller and held much more music. Both sides of the tape could be used, and each side held anywhere between 30 to 60 minutes of music. There were also not as many problems with the cassette tape. The player would not eat the tape as often and the sound quality was often better. The 8-track tape and the cassette tape were the new and improved types of music devices that everyone quickly became accustomed to.
The magnetic tape devices were successful, but there was still room for improvement. Around 1980, Sony and Philips, along with a group of engineers, produced the audio disk. Information on the discs was stored in a series of spiral tracks of tiny pits that were read by a laser. The compact discs became popular because not only were they more portable and easily stored, but they also held up to 80 minutes of audio on a more compact device. People didn’t have to worry about having problems with the magnetic tape getting messed up during use. The only major problem that they had was keeping them clean and scratch-free, because if the discs were scratched at all the lasers could not read the information and the disc was no longer any good.
As time went on, music became more easily produced and portable with the many different device innovations. People were pleased with the fact that they were constantly being presented with bigger and better music technology. Little did they know that they would soon be able to use devices with the music downloaded directly into them, without needing any type of disc or tape. Kane Kramer was one of the first inventors to come up with the idea of the digital audio player in 1979. It could originally hold only three and a half minutes of audio playback. After many years of people building on the idea of the digital audio player, in 1996, Audio Highway introduced the Listen Up player. It allowed people to download music, like MP3 files, to a computer and then transfer it to the player. In 2001, MP3 players were capable of being installed into mobile phones. Also in 2001, Apple introduced the first-generation iPod, which allowed people to download and save much more music than before. The next year, in 2002, the second-generation iPod was released. As the years go on, Apple continues to make new and improved iPods that meet the needs of consumers around the world. Apple’s iPod started out as solely music players with black and white screens and buttons used for controls. They have evolved into music and movie players with touch screens and capabilities similar to a computer. Digital audio players finally made it possible for people to listen to music without the hassle have having to use a tape or disc.
Many people have preferences as to which type of music medium that they prefer. Even after all of the innovations and improvements in music technology over the years, I have found that many people prefer the vinyl records. They don’t scratch as easily as compact discs, and they don’t demagnetize or get wound up like the 8-tracks and cassettes. Many people prefer the compact discs because of the portability. Some say the music that is downloaded onto the MP3 players often lose its quality during the transfer.Many people don’t care about the possibility of the loss of music quality and would rather use an MP3 player to save from the hassle of needing a disc or tape. The preference of the type of music medium also often depends on the generation. Many times, people will always use what they are familiar with; regardless of if there have been new and improved innovations that they may appreciate more. Ultimately, preference of music technology depends on the person and the lifestyle of that person.
Technology advances have made it possible for people around the world to live more advanced lifestyles. The many different innovations show how civilization can work together to create such wonderful developments. The music aspect of the entertainment industry has evolved tremendously. From the phonograph to the iPod, civilization has been blessed with innovations that have made living more enjoyable.
Legality of Music
The advancements of technology in music have made it possible for the success of the entertainment industry. Many companies and websites were created as technology improved in order to meet the music needs of consumers. Advancements in music technology have also caused many controversies with legal issues. Consumers and musicians tend to not see eye to eye on the issue of legality in the music industry. Some believe that downloading music instead of buying it is completely legal, while others believe that it is breaking the law. The numerous lawsuits and legal issues show the severity of using and downloading copyrighted music.
File sharing has been one of the most controversial topics when it comes to legality of music. As technology advanced, the ability to share files over the computer became possible. It is also called P2P sharing, which is also known as peer-to-peer file sharing. It consists of transferring files from one computer to another through the Internet and the Internet sites that supports it. Those sites include companies like Napster, Kazaa, and Limewire. Napster, created by a man named Shawn Fanning, was one of the first online sites that offered peer-to-peer sharing. It allowed users to bypass certain legal steps in order to share music files from one computer to another. People were finally able to obtain as many songs as they wanted without paying a single penny.
As consumers found ways to download songs for free, legal issues started to rise. The controversy was that some people looked at the file sharing as “sharing” when others looked at it as “stealing”. Those who were musicians or part of the music industry believed that file sharing and downloading music for free was illegal and considered stealing. They believed it was stealing because their main source of money came from record sales. If the consumers were no longer buying their music and just downloading it for free, their main source of income was drastically cut. They felt it was their job to fight against the illegal file sharing in order to save their paychecks and continue to make a living. On the other hand, those who were not involved in the music industry believed that it was considered sharing. They were most concerned about getting as much out of the free music downloading service as possible while saving the most money. Their paychecks didn’t depend on the amount of music sales that were being made, so they had no reason to think twice about it. According to the IFPI, in 2008, only 5 percent of all music downloads were legal. That means that the music industry was only being paid for 5 percent of the music that was being downloaded, which is what made musicians and record labels so angry. The controversy of sharing versus stealing brought about many lawsuits with the music industry and the consumers making the music downloads and file sharing with each other. In 1999, there was a lawsuit filed against Napster for the transferring of copyrighted music. They were shut down and agreed to pay $26 million to music creators and copyright owners and $10 million as an advance against future licensing and copyright files. Another lawsuit involved a woman named Jammie Thomas. She was sued by different record labels for downloading 24 songs illegally from the file-sharing site called Kazaa, which was considered copyright infringement. The case was tried three different times. During the first case, she denied making any of the downloads, and she told them that it may have been a computer hacker. She presented them with a hard drive that did not show any signs of Kazaa or the downloads that she was being accused of. They wanted her to pay more than $200,000 total for the songs that she downloaded. The case was tried twice more because of the questions about theories from the first trial. After the third trial, they wanted her to pay a total of $1.5 million. She fought back as much as she could in order to get the court to reduce the amount to nothing or to a more reasonable amount that they would consider more constitutional. The case went public and made all of the file sharers and illegal downloaders realize how serious the record labels were about stealing their copyrighted music. Some people were scared to get in similar trouble, so they stopped being a part of the file-sharing sites. Others knew that the trials were rare and continued to download music as they pleased. The legal issues finally started to pose a threat to those who were illegally sharing files.
With all of the legal issues and cases that were being brought about from file sharing, people and corporations had to be careful about playing copyright music. For example, radio stations usually play what is popular so that people will listen to their stations. In order to be able to play that popular, copyrighted music, they have to get permission to do so. There is a group called The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, also known as ASCAP, who authorize the use of copyrighted music. If radio stations or corporations decide that they want to use copyrighted music, they must take the proper steps to legally be able to use that music. Just as it is illegal to download music without paying for it, it is also illegal to play the music for the public. If music is copyrighted, it means that all rights are reserved to the owner unless permission is granted. There are many other times that permission must be granted besides radio stations. For example, if you want to use music in a movie, show, or event that features copyrighted music, you must get the proper permission to do so. Without taking the proper steps to legally use music, the music companies can and will sue for their rights.
Technology has drastically improved over the years, which has not only improved the entertainment world, but it has also caused many implications in the legal world. As technology and new innovations came about, people were easily able to secretly go against the law to benefit themselves. They were finally able to save their money and use the file sharing websites to download music illegally, which didn’t seem morally wrong to most people. On the other hand, the music industry felt differently. Musicians and record companies were greatly affected by the amount of music that was being stolen. They fought it as much as they could in order to save their earnings, because without people buying their music they couldn’t make a living. In order to obtain or use copyrighted music without causing legal problems, proper permission must be given. By staying away from file sharing sites, like Napster and Limewire, and purchasing the music that you use, there is no reason to worry about legal issues. Consumers and the music industry would both benefit if copyrighted music was handled correctly and honestly.
References
ASCAP. (2010). Customer Licensees.
Capitol v. Thomas. (2010). Wikipedia.
Compact Disc. (2010). Wikipedia.
Digital Audio Player. (2010). Wikipedia.
Edinformatics. (2010). Compact Discs.
Longino, C. (2009). IFPI Says 95% of Music Downloads are Illegal.
Napster. (2010). Wikipedia.
Peer-to-Peer File Sharing. (2010). Wikipedia.