By Bill Owen
In my book "The Fan Experience" I talk about the effect of disruptive technology on the music business in Chapter One "Revolutions."
One thing I haven't heard as yet (let me know if you have!" is that we have a duplication technology to thank for creating the basis of the recorded music industry. It was the Gutenberg printing press that led to the boom in printed sheet music in the home. Without the comparatively abundant duplication capability of the printing press the middle class in Europe at the time would not have had access to recorded music to play in their homes.
In effect, prior to duplication technology copyright was clearly not an issue. Books were for the elite, the nobility and he clergy. It was only until the mass printing of the Gutenberg printing press that printers started to worry about their right as printers.
The point I want to make here is that whilst the printers of the time experienced the same worries as our music business rights holders today over the abundance of duplication which is perfectly valid, we also would not have had the copyright business model in the first place that created our music industry today.
One thing I haven't heard as yet (let me know if you have!" is that we have a duplication technology to thank for creating the basis of the recorded music industry. It was the Gutenberg printing press that led to the boom in printed sheet music in the home. Without the comparatively abundant duplication capability of the printing press the middle class in Europe at the time would not have had access to recorded music to play in their homes.
In effect, prior to duplication technology copyright was clearly not an issue. Books were for the elite, the nobility and he clergy. It was only until the mass printing of the Gutenberg printing press that printers started to worry about their right as printers.
The point I want to make here is that whilst the printers of the time experienced the same worries as our music business rights holders today over the abundance of duplication which is perfectly valid, we also would not have had the copyright business model in the first place that created our music industry today.
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