The double-edged
digital music genie
How to (almost) destroy an industry
How to (almost) destroy an industry
The music industry in the late-1980s was faced with a dilemma caused by Sony's release of the CD format, a replacement for the 1940's-vintage vinyl-pressing-and-turntable system.
It was physically smaller and used a laser to read the media but it was also digital, so the master tapes had to be converted to the new format, sometimes very badly. But most importantly, it addressed the failings of vinyl: records suffer from dirt, wear, noise of various types including hiss, rumble and crackle, the turntable was sensitive to motion and this could also damage the record. For radio it was hard to make turntables that would immediately spin at the right speed from start up.
And the limited space on the record meant often compression had to be used to limit the groove size so the whole album would fit on. Mastering the cutting was a skilled job: indeed George Peckham, perhaps the most skilled cutter, famously used to sign his pressings "A Porky Prime Cut"
The prospect of massively increased profits from the re-sale of their back catalogue with minimal costs and an assured return as initially only the most popular albums were re-issued was tempered with the knowledge of the inevitability of rippers, blank CDs and the ability to copy the copy without degradation plus improved compression methods (.mp3) and broadband speeds (DSL and then fibre) leading to music sharing sites eg Napster and p2p, then legal all-you-can-eat sites eg Spotify, Apple Music that eventually ripped the heart out of the whole music production business.
This was short term profit for long-term decline, but for the Music executives of the time it was massive profits, huge bonuses then they could retire before the business declined.
The dead cat bounce of vinyl sales is another example of music industry executives' perennial attempts to make us buy the same thing again and again, but it's small beer compared to what the industry made from CD's in the 10 years from 1985 to 1995.