The recording and sharing of sounds is an ever changing process, that has evolved with music itself.
In 2024, digital music, video and games are available on tap, with the industry geared toward a subscription model, where customers receive what they want, when they want it. Multiple subscription models are available, and attempt to out-compete each other in offering their customers the best variety and choice, in order to become the dominant platform. Streaming services offer convenience, but the customer owns nothing tangible, and is simply plumbed into the torrent of content. Different providers offer different perks, in a bid to secure your monthly commitment.
This battle for dominance is nothing new, but was the inevitable result of our transition from physical recordings, to digital ones. With digital content, a customer simply owns the rights to a digital copy of a title. As this became popular, iPods, MP3 players, phones and computers were loaded with enormous libraries of files, which gave the perception of owning something, despite the absence of a physical object.
Media companies are, on the whole, leaving the era of owning physical recordings behind them. The age of Compact Discs (CDs) and Digital Video Discs (DVDs/Blu-ray) is coming to an end. Digital-only media cuts out a huge part of the manufacturing process and keeps costs down for producers. Discs were once the most common and reliable way of purchasing and owning your own copies of recordings, so that you could enjoy them whenever you wished. As it still meant amassing a physical collection, but there was the tangible feeling of owning the piece of work. Before discs, came tape, such as audio and video cassettes. Sound, video and games were recorded onto a reel-to-reel system of magnetic tape. Capacity was a problem, as was degrading of the recording itself, and tapes occasionally jammed, unspooled or tore inside the tape deck. There are also rival formats that fell by the wayside, such as Sony’s Minidisc and Universal Media Disc (UMD) and Betamax video, which was bested by the popular Video Home System (VHS).
Most nostalgic and collectable of all, is an even earlier means of recording music, and is perhaps something that will forever be linked to the music vernacular. Still produced and purchased today, vinyl records are an early example of sound inscribed as an impression on a solid object. The word “record” was used to describe these impressions, with “vinyl” coming from the polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material that it was etched into. The impression is inscribed in a spiralling “track”, to create an “album” of songs. Both terms are still used in the industry today. The sounds are translated by a needle, or stylus, that is placed in the groove, and travels from the outer edge to the centre, reading the sound. Vinyl became the most popular material and was a more flexible and durable medium than its brittle predecessors, shellac and Bakelite. Vinyl can be desirable due to its scarcity, its nostalgic quality, or for the distinct sound properties that it possesses. Some artists will only release on vinyl, as it preserves the integrity of the medium and ensures that tracks are a unique and limited commodity that must be actively sought out.
Even before vinyl was the phonographic cylinder, devised by Thomas Edison in 1887. The principle was essentially the same, except that the impression was carved into a roll or tube of wax. Edison built upon the work of Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, who in 1857 achieved the mind-boggling feat of inscribing a sound into a physical object. Edison was able to create a machine that could record and replay sounds, and his idea of using thick wax cylinders, meant that they could be shaved down and re-used. Pianolas or “player pianos” came soon afterwards and were seemingly self-playing upright pianos, fitted with a roll of punched paper that contained a song, and told the keys when to operate.
Wax cylinders were limited to only a few minutes of recording time, and incredibly delicate, but this pioneering feat ensured that sound could be preserved in a physical object, which could be swapped and interchanged with other recordings. Before this, songs could only be recorded as written down lyrics and sheet music, and the magic of performance was a moment in time, that happened only once. Phonography captured these moments in a physical form, so that they could be collected and preserved for as long as they were intact.
The City of Worcester Collection contains numerous phonographic cylinders, piano rolls, vinyl, shellack and Bakelite discs, and film. These items document the many innovations in the history of recorded sound. So, the next time that you enjoy your favourite piece of music, think of the incredible technological journey that made this process possible.
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