The music industry is always changing. At the turn of the last century, it was the business of selling sheet music and every family had someone who could play piano or a stringed instrument, usually mandolin.
Then came radio, and everyone could hear music played by “professional” musicians. Apart from the big-name bandleaders and featured singers/soloists, of course, they barely got by.
Along with the growth of radio came the distribution of records, but it didn’t really take off until the 33 1/3 RPM long-playing record let them put 20+ minutes on a side of a disc.
You had, as others have observed, niche and non-mainstream players who suddenly bloomed into public consciousness, but barriers to entry were always very high.
The technical demands of the vinyl LP were frustrating. You lost a lot at both ends of the audio spectrum. Mastering engineers would roll off your bass and the filters would assassinate your upper harmonics… and the first time you heard the record, vice the master tapes through studio monitors, it sounded so flat and lifeless and dull.
I am old enough to remember agonizing over what running order to put your cuts in, to make radio stations listen beyond the first cut and then to leave both side one and side two with a positive impression of your act. I’m also old enough to regret the absence of a 1′ square of record jacket for self-expression.
I believe that the enforced discipline of those limitations made for more interesting music. The radio wouldn’t play your cut if it was too long, so you had to get in, grab their attention, say your piece and get out in three minutes. Most artists today take longer to communicate less — they’re very self-indulgent by our (dated) standards.
The CD created new technical possibilities, and new limitations, which the industry was very slow to come to terms with, let alone exploit. Digital downloading has only increased that dichotomy between technical promise and industrial inertia. The larger something is, the more resistant it is to changing direction… the major-label cartel is so consolidated now that will probably need really swingeing losses to wake up.
