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