Sound Media

• Think radio doesn’t have much impact?

• Tell the people who heard Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938.

• Panic ensued when New Jersey residents thought Martians had landed nearby.

Radio

• 6.6 radio receivers for every U.S. household

• Teens/adults listen 22 hours a week average

• 520 million radio sets in U.S. – that’s two for every American

• 92% of Americans listen in a given week

• More than 15,000 licensed radio stations in America

• Radio industry worth $15.1 billion a year in 2012

• Clear Channel biggest chain with more than 850 stations

• Guglielmo Marconi – Italian who invented radio as well as wireless telegraphs– Pioneered wireless

shortwave technology that helped establish radio

– Sent first trans-Atlantic message in 1901

– Won Nobel prize in 1909

• David Sarnoff– One of a handful of

New York radio operators who got first word of 1912 Titanic sinking

– Expanded radio as medium while head of RCA; later pioneered television and helped form NBC

• KDKA in Pittsburgh — First licensed radio station, first broadcast presidential election results in November 1920

• Regulation– Federal Radio Commission

established in 1927• Handled disputes between

stations fighting for space on the dial.

• Commission decided that public service would be a prerequisite for a license, reasoning that airwaves were public property and should be placed in hands of public trust

• Trusteeship concept – belief that the government and licensees serve as a trustee in the public interest.

• Networks came along in 1930s broadcasting national programming to affiliates, or stations who agreed to receive programming from a particular network, connected country through news and programs, but hurt idea of local news programming.

• With radio gaining popularity, Vaudeville acts started finding homes on radio, including:– Jack Benny

– Bob Hope

– Abbott & Costello

– Fred Allen

– George Burns

– Bing Crosby

– Jimmy Durante

– Red Skelton

• Edward R. Murrow – As CBS’ Europe correspondent, Murrow vividly brought home the Nazi invasion to millions of listeners in America, went on to become a journalistic legend in television.

• Gordon McLendon– Radio pioneer who took

radio past the television age into format programming, which limits content to one style, either news, sports, religious or music: rock, country, blues, jazz, etc.

– Started at KLIF in Dallas

• All-news radio– Developed by Gordon McLendon in 1960s

• Bought a high-powered radio station in Tijuana that broadcast across the border, had staff read wire copy over the air

– Format expanded as niche markets took off

– Now focuses mostly on quick-hit news as well as traffic and weather reports

• Corporation for Public Broadcasting– The Carnegie Commission for

Educational Television called for a government-funded educational television, radio system.

– In 1967, Congress passed the Public Broadcasting Act, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, hoping to change landscape of television from “vast wasteland.”

– Corporation helped establish TV’s Public Broadcasting Service, or PBS, and National Public Radio.

• National Public Radio• Began in 1970 with help from government and private

donations. Its news show, All Things Considered, is a staple of serious news in U.S. that has been on the air since 1971. Gives longform news stories not shown on most radio news.

• A Prairie Home Companion – Last live weekly

original radio variety show left in U.S., created by Garrison Keillor in 1974 based on a fictional Minnesota town called Lake Wobegon, still broadcasts on NPR every Saturday night

• Rise of FM Radio– In the 1960s and

1970s, FM radio, which had produced high-fidelity sound, allowed popular music to be played with better quality. Also led to rise of the disc jockey, like Wolfman Jack in the 1970s.

• Deregulation– Trend in the 1980s to

reduce government regulation of business

• In 1987, Fairness Doctrine repealed.

• In 1996, Telecommunications Act relaxed limits on number of stations one could own.

— Marketplace concept took over, establishing that market should determine fate of a business, not government. This replaced the trusteeship concept.

• The rise of talk– With FM radio dominated by music because of its better-

quality sound, AM radio struggled to find an audience.

– Talk shows became a more reasonable format for AM radio since quality of sound from people talking wasn’t as important.

– When Fairness Doctrine was repealed, stations didn’t have to worry about giving equal time to different points of view.

• Rush Limbaugh– In 1988, began national

show that exploded in popularity with conservatives who believed no one in mass media spoke their beliefs. Averages nearly 20 million weekly listeners, largest talk show audience in U.S.

• Decline of radio news– After FCC dropped public service as a condition for license

renewal, news has dwindled as a segment of radio programming. Number of radio reporters has plummeted.

– Many news stations combine talk radio to maintain profitability, leading stations to call themselves “news/talk.”

• Radio consolidation– Relaxed ownership

limits led to San Antonio-based Clear Channel owning 850 stations in U.S.

• Uses centralized playlists, meaning only 30-40 titles would play at a time; libraries consisted of 300-400 songs

• Voice tracking, or prerecorded announcing, cut costs

• Satellite Radio– Delivery method of programming from a single source beamed

to an orbiting satellite for transmission directly to individual end users.

– Different from standard terrestrial radio, which is based on audio transmission from land-based towers.

• Sirius XM– The first national U.S. radio

stations went on the air in 2001 as satellite stations. The two merged as one company in 2008.

– Charges monthly fee ranging from $15-$19, keep stations mostly commercial-free.

– Offers hundreds of channels with mainstream formats – pop, rock, country, etc. – but also specialized programming, like chamber music, audiobooks and gardening tips

• Howard Stern– New York shock jock

who was fined repeatedly for obscenity by FCC moved to Sirius radio in 2004 with a $100 million-a-year contract

• Shock jock– Announcer whose style

includes vulgarities, taboos

• On-demand radio– Like TiVo for

television, it records programs for later playback

– TuneIn Radio has database of 50,000 stations from 140 countries without a subscription

Recording industryWhether on a Victrola or iTunes, whether Sinatra or hip-hop, the

recording industry has a strong hold on American life.

• Recording industry by the numbers– In 2004, global sales estimated at $33.6

billion

– In 2012, that number fell to $16.5 billion

– In the U.S., sales reached $12.9 billion in 2004. In 2012, it fell to $5.3 billion.

– Doesn’t include concerts, merchandise, sponsorships and other revenue streams.

• David Geffen– UT dropout who left an

agent job to found Asylum Records to record Jackson Browne album in 1971. Soon landed The Eagles, Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan.

– Founded Geffen Records which signed John Lennon, Aerosmith, Nirvana.

– Now Hollywood’s richest man with $6 billion.

• Universal Music Group– 35% U.S. market share

– Owned by French multimedia group Vivendi

– Labels include Def Jam, Geffen, MCA Nashville and old Motown label

– Artists include Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, 50 Cent, U2, George Strait, Rihanna, Kanye West and Miley Cyrus

Major companies – Big Four

• Sony Music Entertainment– 23% U.S. market share

– In 2008, it bought out German conglomerate Bertelsmann’s 50% stake

– Labels include Columbia, Epic, Sony Nashville, RCA and Arista

– Artists include Alicia Keys, Usher, Chris Brown, AC/DC

• Warner Music Group – 21% U.S. market share

– Only U.S.-owned of the Big Four; Time Warner sold to investors in 2004

– Labels include Atlantic, Bad Boy (founded by Sean Combs), Reprise (founded by Frank Sinatra), Asylum (founded by David Geffen)

– Artists include Madonna, R.E.M, Green Day, Eric Clapton

• EMI Group– 8% U.S. market share

– Bought in 2007 by European private equity firm

– Original label of The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen

– Paul McCartney, Coldplay and Radiohead left EMI after takeover

• Independent labels– Indies are smaller,

independently-owned record companies not part of the Big Four

– Indies make up 12 percent of the U.S. market

– Usually bring fresh spirit to music, like Sun, Stax and Def Jam

– Most famous indie was Motown created by Detroit’s Berry Gordy

• Berry Gordy– Detroit native who founded

Motown Records in 1959

– Label created the Motown sound, which gave African-American performers first mainstream pop exposure

– Artists included Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Martha and the Vandellas, The Four Tops, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Jackson Five and The Commodores

– Sold to MCA in 1988 for $61 million, now owned by Universal Music

• Shawn Fanning– Grew up on welfare

before getting hooked on computer programming

– Found way to tap into other’s hard drives for MP3 downloads

– His program, Napster, became a hit when started in 1998

– Was forced to shut down after record industry accused him of copyright infringement

• Rise of Napster created underground system of file swapping, or sharing files, usually MP3s of individual songs over Internet

• Recording Industry Association of America began suing individual users who downloaded music without paying – result was a public relations fiasco.

• In 2005, Supreme Court ruled with RIAA against fellow file-sharer Grokster that it was actively encouraging copyright infringement.

• Despite legal efforts, downloading continued and sales for major record companies headed south.

• Music piracy– Along with file sharing,

recording industry on guard against pirate dubbing, or illegal copying of music and movies for sale on the black market

– So-called “bootleg” copies account for estimated 20-30 percent of CD sales

– RIAA investigates in Asia, Africa for piracy

• iTunes– Apple founder Steve

Jobs solved music industry’s problem in 2001 with iTunes, a program that charged users 99 cents to download a copy of song, which could be heard on an iPod

– More than 1 million songs downloaded first week

– Now the largest music retailer in U.S.

• The effect of the iTunes revolution has been the demise of retail outlets that sold recorded music.

• Small record stores had already been fighting off chains like Sam Goody, Musicland.

• Now those chains are struggling because of downloads and giant retailers like Wal-Mart

• Podcasts– Another way technology has

changed recorded music is through the podcast.

– A podcast is recorded material not broadcast but available for download onto a device like an iPod.

– It has become a way for musicians to sidestep traditional radio to get their music heard.

– Since space is infinite, it also allows non-traditional genres to be heard from bluegrass to polka.

– Ricky Gervais’ comedy podcast has a Guinness record for averaging 261,000 downloads per show.

• Adam Curry– Former MTV video disc

jockey or VJ

– He and software pioneer Dave Winer developed program that makes podcasting possible.

– They founded PodShow Inc., in 2005 and started one of the first successful podcast shows, Daily Source Code

– Yahoo and Google invested $9 million into PodShow

• A&R– Artist and repertoire was the

name of the division that ruled everything in the old recording company system.

– Result was little variety in music or in performers

– Pop singers like Peggy Lee served less as artists and more as robots for A&R managers.

– As a result, pop culture was a top-down operation, from the record company to the consumer.

• Garage bands changed the A&R system

• With recording technology cheaper and more available, allowed small bands to put together high-quality music recordings

• As a result, more talent started rising from the bottom, rather than be “discovered” by A&R execs.

• Attempts to ban music have always been made, from 1920s jazz music to Bill Haley in 1950s to war protest songs of Vietnam era

• FCC in 1971 forced radio stations to know whether lyrics would be appropriate for listeners.

• In 1980s, Parents Music Resource Center lobbied for labels on “objectionable” music. Tipper Gore, wife of Al Gore, led cause while artists objected.

• Ice T’s 1992 song “Cop Killer” was subject of fierce scrutiny after its release. Police organizations and others called for it to be taken off shelves.

• Gerald Levin, who ran Time Warner which oversaw the company that distributed album, defended artist freedom at first, then backtracked.

• The irony is…

… now he plays a cop on Law and Order: SVU. Go figure.

• Radio and the recording industry have always had to work together. Radio needs recorded music to play, and the record industry needs a place to play it.

• In the 1950s, to get airplay, or time devoted to a song, record companies began bribing DJs to play their songs.

• The “payola” scandal, as it was known, led to an FCC clampdown.

• So recording artists have had to market in other ways.

• Winning a Grammy has always helped sales. It did for Norah Jones in 2003. When Lauryn Hill (left) won five Grammys in 1999, her record sales doubled.

• Gold record– Selling 500,000 albums

or 1 million singles

• Platinum record– Selling 1 million albums

or 2 million singles

• Or you can do what country group Montgomery Gentry did: Record the same song 81 times using a different college or pro sports team in the lyrics, hoping local radio stations would play it. The song “Lucky Man” went to the top of the country chart.