How Tech Changed The Music

How TECH
Changed
the MUSIC
…AND OUR ABILITY TO PERCEIVE IT
SONYA SOKOLOVA, ZVUKI.RU

Traditional music
Traditional ontological characteristics
Concert Hall and the situation of the concert: the composer introduces music to
the audience
Music is supplementary
Music text / score to be performed and listened to
The traditional way to create music: write - perform
Performing a piece of music requires training
Composers are a closed caste; creativity is a scalar process
Polyphonic letter: equality of voices. Only in the 17th century homophony
replaced polyphonic writing (thanks, Monteverdi!)
...and then the Industrial Revolution happened.

PHONOGRAPH,
Telharmonium
1875 1920’s1910’s 1930’s 1940’s 1950’s 1960’s
FIRST ELECTRIC
SYNTHESIZER
GRAMMOPHONE,
AMP,
HEADPHONES
MAGNETIC
TAPE,
LP
FIRST CONCERT
BROADCASTING,
POWER AMP,
RPM,
VOCODER
OVERDUBBING
REVOX
MULTI-TRACK
RECORDING
RCA MARK 2
AND MOOG
SYNTHESIZERS
POWER AMP
KEY TECH EVENTS THAT CHANGED MUSIC
1980’s
WALKMAN
SOUND BLASTER
1990’s
STEINBERG
VIRTUAL STUDIO
FRUITYLOOPS
PLUG INS
1887
FIRST MUSIC
RADIO
BROADCASTING,
AMP

Revenue streams in music industry
BRAND-RELATED &
AD REVENUE
FAN, CORPORATE
and FOUNDATION
FUNDING
LABEL
SUPPORT
SONGWRITER
AND COMPOSER
ROYALTY FEE
LIVE CONCERTS
RETAIL SALES
1900
1905
1915RECORDING
ARTIST REVENUE
MUSIC
REVENUE
STREAMS
DIGITAL SALES
19201930
1950
1998
2005

1876
Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both filed for a patent
for the TELEPHONE on the same morning February 14, 1876.
Grey called it “liquid transmitter”.
Bell won this battle…
…Yet Elisha Gray founded GRAYBAR in 1869,
and patented a 2-octave KEYBOARD TRANSMITTER,
along with 70 other patents
MUSICAL TELEGRAPH - July 27, 1875
THE RESULT:
Western Union Telegraph Company (Western Electric)
postponed the commercial usage of the synthesizer
FIRST ELECTRIC SYNTHESIZER
by ELISHA GRAY

PHONOGRAPH
BY THOMAS EDISON
Edison's phonograph could record and reproduce sound on a cylindrical
tinfoil sheet (“canned music”)
1st stage: Phonautograph for telegraphs (sound engraved into the foil or a
paper strip)
First song recorded: “Mary had a little lamb”
1887
THE RESULT:
- Coin-operated “Automatic Phonograph Parlours”
became as popular as concerts in 1890
- “Acoustic systems” were rented together with music
records
- 1,000 phonographs and 25, 000 records sold in 1893

GRAMMOPHONE
BY COMPTON MACKENZIE
Tinfoil – wax – shellac - vinyl
Victor Orthophonic Victrola Phonograph aka
VICTROLA - May, 1925. An improvement on
Victor's previous models was its superior acoustic
sound design.
1906
THE RESULT:
- “Home acoustic systems” and personal
collections
- First national hits and soundtracks
- Studio musicians
- Records began to be sold along with notes
- The “Big 3” major labels— Colombia, Victor
and Edison. Deutsche Gramophone in GR Nipper, the dog of Berliner Gramophone Company

Grammophone Singles
Парад Грен. корпуса, гимн Боже, Царя Храни!
THE RESULT:
- Album becomes an art concept
- Record sales charts appear in 1956
Record in 1900 is a Single
Album = several singles
12 ’single - track density is low.
Single record is 7 minutes where you can
write 20
2-sided singles first appeared in 1915

AMP
BY LEE DEE FOREST
“Audion” - first vacuum triode based on a vacuum tube
In 1911 Edwin Armstrong was the first to recognize that the triode could
operate as an amplifier
Modern phonographs became connected to an amplifier, electric sound
revolution improved sales
Microphone + AMP: 1912
1906
THE RESULT:
- Soft instruments could now be “microphonally amplified”
through the new “loud-speakers”
- Loud instruments such as drums appeared on records for the
first time
- Huge concerts became possible

ARTIST – LABEL relations
Until the 1910s, the music business was dominated by book publishers
and theater concerns.
Commercial record sales: 4 million in 1900 -> 30 million in 1910
Price: $1-$7 per record, gold standard for “serious music”
In 1909, a new copyright law passed by the US Congress forced royalties
from record sales to be paid to songwriters and publishers, though not to
performers
In 1917, Jazz became the first became the first new kind of music to
originate on records (Original Dixieland Jass Band)
First superstar: 1 million record was sold by Enrico Caruso in 1919
First artist record contract: $4000 / song + $0.40 per record
(records cost $1 or $1.50.)
130 million records were sold between 1903 and 1942
Artist – public relations: “We don’t need no education!”

HEADPHONES
BY NAT BALDWIN
Electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a
corresponding sound.
Baldwin made them by hand in his kitchen and sold to the United States
Navy as a portable part of the telegraph
Commercial use - the telephone receiver earpiece
1910
THE RESULT:
- The concept of “private listening”
- Homophonic music is dominating, as there are no channels yet
- Commercial sales bloomed with portable devices
- Moment of glory: SONY WALKMAN (1983)

FIRST MUSIC RADIO
Why pay for the records if there’s free music on air?
First radio concert halls and studios were public
Artist royalty for broadcasting (public royalty) - 1921
Record companies tried to prevent records from being
played on the radio
Radio companies were subsidized
1920
THE RESULT:
- Victor Records was bought by RCA,
- Colombia was bought by CBS radio network
- Edison had faded out by 1929
- In 2020, there are 450 000+ music radio stations in the world

Revolution is the reason for the
paradigm shift in artist thinking
1912-1915 – Electronics & the Avant-garde. The evolution of music is the evolution of sound (“Music
of Higher Chromatism”, Futurism, a stringed polychord, an electric organ).
1918 – Industrial sounds and voices. Soviet composers: Prokofiev, Abramov, Hismatov, Khachatourian
1920 – First synthesizers: Telharmonium, Thermenvox (Theremin, Shostakovich) and Heirronomy
(Arthur Anaeger, Olivier Messian)
1928 - Marteno wave instruments
1920-1930 - Musique concrète
Actionism and the situation of the action: the composer creates in real-time, the public is a participant
in the creation process.
The performance of the music work does not require training
Since then, “avant garde”, “contemporary”, “innovative” music is mostly electronic music

THEREMINVOX
by LEV THEREMIN
Lev Theremin was a Soviet engineer
who invented The ‘Theremin’ or
‘Thereminvox’ in 1920.
Creator of the endovibrator - a wireless
device with which you can listen to
speech through the walls, used by KGB
for many years.
Theremin is an electro-musical device,
the main element of which is a
generator that creates high-frequency
oscillations with a fixed frequency of 90
Hz. The second generator is controlled
by musician.
No commercial use, great inspiration
1920

MAGNETIC TAPE
by FRITZ PFLEUMER
Austrian engineer Fritz Pfleumer run a trial-and-error process of finding an
alternative to magnetic wires. He'd eventually adhere iron oxide powder
to thin paper with lacquer and patent the world's first magnetic recording
tape.
THE RESULT:
- The portable stereo eventual emergence is entirely on him
- The tape remains a signature studio and home-audio tools
for decades
- Music has become easy to EDIT and RE-RECORD
1923

AEG Magnetophon
Tape Recorder1935
German electronics-engineering company AEG
(Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft) unveiled
the first reel-to-reel tape recorder for everyday use.
The Magnetophon was premiered at the Berlin International
Radio Exhibition.
By 1939, tape manufacturers began using a different kind of
oxide that provided extra clarity
THE RESULT:
- BOOTLEGS and BOOTLEGERS
- “Field concert recordings”
- Music interviews

VOCODER
Before Auto-Tune, the Vocoder reigned as our primary
tool for manipulating and messing with a singer's pitch
(i.e. a vocal synthesizer).
Created by a Bell Labs physicists to secure compressed
voice transmissions over phone lines
WWII - used in obscuring trans-Atlantic conversations
between President Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
1940
THE RESULT:
- In 1970 Kraftwerk made it commonplace in popular music,
where it would later be notably adopted by everyone – from
Cher to Daft Punk.

GLITCH and EDITED MUSIC
“The Art of Noises” - Manifesto by Italian composer and artist Luigi Russolo in 1913. “Move
away from traditional forms and tones and seek inspiration in other life forms!”
1920-1930 - Musique concrète: Type of avant-garde music of the XX century. Noises and sounds
are recorded on a tape recorder, mixed and edited. Music composition utilizes recorded sounds
as raw material.
Pierre Schaeffer at Studio d'Essai , Pierre Anrie; Georges Garvarentz
1940 – Electroacoustic: pre-recorded music Pierre Henry, Luc Ferrari, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz
Stockhausen, Edgar Varèse, and Iannis Xenakis.
Free Jazz: freedom of improvisation and a variety of expressive means
1948 – sequencers, 1980 - VCO synths
New profession: Sound Engineer

RPM (Revolution per Minute)
Phonograph (gramophone) records typically rotate
steadily at 16 2⁄3, 33 1⁄3, 45 or 78 rpm (0.28, 0.55,
0.75, or 1.3 Hz respectively).
78 rpm - shellac
45 - classic vinyl
33 is better than 78
12 ’single - track density is lower.
8-Track Tape - 1965
Bobbins: domestic speeds 9 and 19, 2-track and
multi-track film.
Studio speed remains 38, thanks to…
1949

REVOX
by WILL STUDER
Zurich-born Willi Studer invented a professional audio
recorder, and made it possible for the Beatles and other
musicians to record their albums.
His multi-tracking recorder enabled drop-ins and tape-head
delay effects. The Studer J37 (1955) was at the forefront of
multi-track recording, a technique that revolutionised
studio production.
1952 - Method for automatically stopping the drive of tape-
type record carriers
1960 - D36, the first stereo model.
1950
THE RESULT:
• Abbey Road bought four J37s at a cost of £8,000 each in 1965.
• Studio Studer Turnover still rules the market. Now in digital.

OVERDUBBING
by LES PAUL1950
Les Paul invented the solid-body electric guitar which made
the sound of rock and roll possible. He also worked on
multi-track technologies and invented the overdubbing.
Overdubbing is a technique used in audio recording where
a passage has been pre-recorded, and then during replay,
another part is recorded to go along with the original. The
overdub process can be repeated multiple times.
THE RESULT:
- LOOPS
- Music sequencers

STUDIO RECORDING
AND PRODUCTION
1958 – BBC Radiophonic workshop: Delia Derbyshire, Daphne Oram, Desmond Prisco.
Materials: radio, trash with Portobello, tape recorder, scissors
Techniques: Accelerating, slowing, raising and lowering tones, loops, etc.
1960 - Fluxus Movement: Dick Higgins, Yasunao Tone, Henry Flynt
Influence: Pink Floyd - “Piper At The Gates Of Dawn” (1967), Yoko Ono, Cabaret
Voltaire, Human League – “Tom Baker” (1980)
THE RESULT:
- Endless number of attempts and cuts during studio sessions
- High quality recorded performance becomes a standard
- Remix culture
1958
Dr.Who - Ron Grainer & Delia Derbyshire

MODULE SYNTHESIZERS
by MOOG and RCA1958-64
1958 - RCA Mark 2 Sound Synthesizer was developed in
Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center
1964 – Robert Moog’s Subtractive Analog Synthesizer
revolutionized the music field. Keyboard + controller is giving
artists and composers the opportunity to create completely
new sound palettes. Synths are affordable from now on.
.
THE RESULT:
- Do It Yourself (DIY) concept is widely adopted
- Modular synth appear on commercially available recordings of
popular music in 1967
- Synths appear even on rock recordings: the Beatles, The Rolling
Stones, The Doors
- 1970 – Synth in mainstream genres: it’s cheaper than an orchestra
“There was never a notion that a synthesizer would be
used by itself for anything” – Robert Moog
Gershon Kingsley - Pop Corn

VOX and MARSHALL AMP
"Vox made special big 100-watt
amplifiers for that tour. We went up
from the 30-watt amp to the 100-watt
amp and it obviously wasn't enough;
we just had the house PA."
George Harrisson
1958-64
Power amplifiers based on transistors
THE RESULT:
- Stadium concerts become practical
- “Live” concert albums (Montreux series)
- Studio / concert soundengineers THE BEATLES' AC100s in 1965

How the music production changed
in TRANSISTOR & COMPUTER ERA
1980 1990 200019701960
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Samples,
Scratches,
Roland Bass Station
DAW
MIDI-sequencer
.
First portable
instruments in mass
production:
MOOG controller and
MINI MOOG
Guitar effect pedals
Fairlight CMA
Audio power amps
based on transistors +
the wide availability of
inexpensive transistors
Fruityloops,
Steinberg Virtual
Studio:
plug ins come to
mass market
Native instruments,
Traktor
Studio 360с
SoundCloud

THE WALKMAN
Sony's Walkman - convenient, fashionable way to make an already
portable innovation even more portable.
The Walkman = Phillips' cassette tape + tape Recorder + AMP +
headphones.
Sony exec and music fan Masaru Ibuka invented Walkman (aka
Sound-About), as a device for airplanes.
1979
THE RESULT:
- The culture of “portable music”
- New acoustics, ambient, “quiet rock”

MTV
INDUSTRY OF COOL
24-hour music-video based MTV was launched
on August 1, 1981, and became a game-changing
network
MTV changed the way we experience music (90%
of video, 10% of audio) and revolutionized music
videos (clip production)
Invented reality TV, highlighted Madonna and
Michael Jackson, added memes
1980
THE RESULT:
- “Video killed the radio star”
- MTV brought rap and “cool music” into the culture

FIRST COMMERCIAL CD
Phillips and Sony came up with an optical 12-centimeter audio disc that could
reproduce hi-fi-worthy sound.
Technology: harnessing surface laser-beam reflections convert digital data into
analog sound.
In 1982, Billy Joel's 52nd Street became commercially available on Compact Disc
in Japan
So why RPM is still used in CD’s?
Music is digitized from Studio Studer Turnover (studio speed is 38)
2 parameters when digitize the music: DEPTH and SAMPLE RATE
Initially, WAV is not compressed, it is a 4416 format (Philips, CD format)
1 disc = 700 MB of information, allows us to record 1 hour of music on it (40-80
minutes)
This is 40Mb, which requires download for 20 hours. So we add Compression
Intermediate phase: mini-disk - already squeezed sound, but stillborn
1982

ELECTRONIC ERA
• 1. Studio equipment
requires special
knowledge
• 2. Sound producers and
sound engineers work
alongside composers
• 3. There are studio
(session) universal
musicians who work
with everyone

HERE COMES THE WEB
1981 – Recorded CD by SONY
1981 – MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital
Interface) – new protocol, DAW (Digital
Audio Workstations).
1993 – WEB broadcast by XEROX PARC
1991 – DRM by SONY
1993 – FLASH DRIVE
1995 – REAL AUDIO by Progressive Networks
1995 - WMA format ASF/ASX by Microsoft
1995 – SOUND BLASTER BY IBM PC
1996 – FLASH DRIVE PLAYER
1996 – REAL AUDIO SERVER, RA
SOFTWARE.
1997 – MPEG (MP3) AND MP3.COM
1998 – WINAMP
1999 – FIRST VIRTUAL MUSIC LABEL
2000 - NAPSTER
2001 – ITUNES, ITUNES STORE, IPOD

SOUND PRO TOOLS
Digidesign founders Peter Gotcher and Evan
Brooks first released Sound Tools as a
completely digital recording and editing
system for Apple Macintosh
Pro Tools in 1991 − with multitrack capabilities
and faster processing.
THE RESULT:
- Digidesign was absorbed by Avid
- Pro Tools reigns among amateur artists and
elite engineers
1989
1990 - Mille Plateaux: German label specializing in the release of minimal techno, glitch and experimental music

GARAGE BAND
Emagic engineer Gerhard Lengeling came up with Logic software,
which allowed home-computer users access to studio-level
features.
GarageBand - digital recording and mastering features.
Jobs demonstrated GarageBand at the 2004 Macworld Expo
THE RESULT:
- Millions of home artists adopted the philosophy of indie
recording
- A decade on, in conjunction with Pro Tools and Logic,
GarageBand continues to embolden previously tech-averse
artists.
2002

From Industrial Revolution to Digital Evolution
00-1877
Acoustic
1925-1945
Electric
Broadcasting
1945-1975
Magnetic,
TV
broadcasting
1975-2019
Digital hard
copies
Downloads
1983-2020
Digital cloud
Stream
& sharing
N of copies per 1 record:
0 1000 - 10 000 100 000+ 100 000 000+ ENDLESS

From Song to Playlist
Song Single Album Collection Playlist
N of songs per 1 record:
1 1-2 7-15 100 + ENDLESS

The royalties have changed the income
structure in the industry
EVERY DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL IS CONTROLLED BY COPYRIGHT SYSTEM
THERE ARE NO INDEPENDENT ARTISTS ANYMORE
00-1900s: Artist -> listener
1925-2019: Artist/ Composer/ Producer -> Recording label / Concert label
RoyaltiesCopyAUTHOR PROMO

Industry outlook: in 2000th streaming rules the market
MAJOR STREAMING PLATFORMS:
APPLE IN 2001
SPOTIFY IN 2010
AMAZON IN 2020

ARTIST-LISTENER
NEW RELATIONS
How audience changed it’s listening mode:
PUBLIC- SMALL GROUP – PRIVATE - SHARING
How the ontological characteristics changed:
PRIVATE RERFORMANCE - SMALL GROUPS – TOTAL STRANGERS
The new way to create music: real-time creation + post production
DIY is the commonly adopted artistic method (and does not require training)
Homophonic letter, rhythmic complexity is rare
“Situation of the concert” is not necessary to appreciate music
Superstars are few, indie / home musicians are millions
47 % of popular artists are long dead
The percentage of live composers is even lower
Just 1.7 of 40 000 records uploaded DAILY on Spotify will be listened to.

Playlist
Iosif Ivanovici - Donauwellen Walzer
Боже, царя храни – парад
Гренадерского корпуса
Enrico Caruso
Лев Термен – демонстрация
терменвокса
Musique Concrete – Pierre Henry
Dorothy Perkins
The Beatles at Shea Stadium
Led Zeppelin ‘ “Immigrant Song”
Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Песенка Винни-Пуха
"Switched-On Bach“
Doctor Who (Original TV Theme) - BBC Radiophonic
Workshop - 1964
Gershon Kingsley - Pop Corn
Radiohead – “Creep”
Underworld – “Scribble”

THANK YOU
ENJOY THE MUSIC
SONYA SOKOLOVA,
sonya@zvuki.ru

How Tech Changed The Music

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