| Music is the art of combining vocal and/or instrumental | | | | records to come out was the 45 made for single |
| tones in a structured manner. | | | | songs. |
| Music has been around almost as long as the earth is | | | | It took the music industry decades to advance from |
| old. We can designate medieval music as a beginning, | | | | the 45 record to new formats, such as 8-tracks and |
| although a precise time is impossible because the | | | | audio/cassette tapes. Once they were created it |
| knowledge of that time period is too vague. | | | | seemed as if the industry took off and overnight the |
| However, in the 1100s large volumes of written, | | | | CD (molded plastic disk scanned by a laser beam for |
| notated polyphony and non-liturgical Latin songs began | | | | digital data) was "born". These, like the record were, |
| emerging before two major changes began to take | | | | and still are, sold in stores for customers to purchase |
| place.a) The use of the interval of a third as a stable | | | | and take home to play on their CD players. Following |
| harmony.b) Humanistic orientation to text with music. | | | | shortly behind is the Mp3 player(standard technology |
| These changes took several decades, putting the | | | | and format for compressing audio signals into very |
| beginning of the Renaissance somewhere between | | | | small computer files. Sound data from a CD is |
| the 1420s (harmonies of Dufay) and the 1500s | | | | compressed to 1/12 the original size) and ipod (portable |
| (humanistic texts of Josquin), which brings us to the | | | | Mp3 player). |
| beginning of opera in the 1600s. The Renaissance style | | | | Now, the pace has picked up even faster and we can |
| ended around 1750 and is also among the clearest | | | | download music right off the internet. In the beginning |
| divisions of Western music. | | | | though, a company (I'm not going to mention any |
| Sometime in the early 1700s through the late 1800s, the | | | | names) was allowing people to download as many |
| best known pieces of European Classical music were | | | | songs as they chose for free. But, there was a |
| written. | | | | problem..It was not exactly legal. A computer company |
| The 1800s was the beginning of a new era, because | | | | names Apple made the process legitimate by allowing |
| of a brilliant man by the name of Thomas Edison. This | | | | the artists to get paid for their work. The music |
| man was an exceptional inventor, on 12-6-1877 he | | | | industry now has the opportunity to license and sell it's |
| finished one of his best inventions...The phonograph and | | | | content over the internet. The idea that people would |
| had it patent on 2-19-1878. Now mind you it was a | | | | pay for downloading music seemed a bit far fetched in |
| fairly complicated machine, using a metal cylinder with | | | | the beginning. But, music sales have gone down by |
| tin foil wrapped around it. The machine had two | | | | one-fifth since the millennium and downloads increased |
| diaphragm-and-needle units, one for recording, and one | | | | to over 500 million by July of 2005. |
| for playback. When he spoke into a mouthpiece, the | | | | A revolution in the music industry was changed |
| sound vibrations would be indented onto the cylinder | | | | dramatically on February 23, 2006 when a 16 year old, |
| by the recording needle in a vertical groove pattern. | | | | Alex Ostrovsky came home and downloaded a song |
| Edison gave a sketch of the machine to his mechanic, | | | | from the Coldplay concert he left just minutes before. |
| John Kreusi, to build, which Kreusi supposedly did within | | | | Alex down loaded one of the songs for 99 cents from |
| about 30 hours. Edison immediately tested the machine | | | | the iTunes Music store (which the Apple computer |
| by speaking the nursery rhyme "Mary had a little lamb" | | | | company started less than 3 years ago). Shortly after |
| into the mouthpiece, and to his amazement, the | | | | that an Apple employee called to let him know he has |
| machine played his words back to him. | | | | just downloaded the ONE BILLIONTH song. For being |
| Now, we are going to get a little closer to the twentieth | | | | the lucky downloader, Apple Computer Company is |
| century of music in time in the 1900s. Starting in the | | | | sending him a $10,000.00 gift card for the iTunes Music |
| beginning of the 1900s, there were disks (no, not CD's | | | | Store, a 20-inch iMac, 10 ipods, and a scholarship to the |
| yet) used by recording studios to record music. These | | | | Juilliard School in New York. |
| discs called records were then sold in stores for | | | | The "one billionth download" should go to show you |
| consumers to purchase and take home to play on | | | | how much this industry has taken over the music |
| their (phonograph) record player. The last of the | | | | world over time! |