Audio technologies and their impact

8/7/2019 Audio technologies and their impact

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Content

3 Abstract

4 Technological Progress

4 Analogue Sound Carriers

7 Digital Sound Carriers

9 MPEG I Audio Layer III9 Definition

10 History

12 Social Impact

15 Conclusion

16 References



3

Abstract

Imagine the world without digital audio devices. Imagine how our surrounding

would sound. In the supermarket, at the doctor´s waiting room, if you go along the

streets, in every shop you can listen to music and mostly we do not even notice it.

Without digital audio players our world would be very quiescent.

To get a better understanding on how modern music devices affect our consump-

tion of the gear “music” we will rst have a look on the technological develop-

ment of sound carriers starting with Edison´s phonograph and why this has been

revolutionary. Following the history of music devices will lead us to digital soundcarriers and at least to the most important achievement in the recording industry:

The MPEG 1 Audio Layer 3, a format that changed our exposure to music dramati-

cally.



4

Technological Progress:

Analogue Sound Carriers

The birth of the whole sound carrier industry was caused from a byproduct in

1877, when T. A. Edison accidently conceived the opportunity to record acousic

noises. As the rst one he made it possible not just to tape voices or sounds but

also – more important – to reproduce them. On November 21 Edison announced

his invention of the rst phonograph and eight days later he demonstrated it.

Finally on February 19, 1878 he protected it by patent:

“In December, 1877, a young man came into the ofce of the ´Scientic Ameri -

can´, and placed before the editors a small, simple machine about which very fewpreliminary remarks were offered. The visitor without any ceremony whatever

turned the crank, and to the astonishment of all present the machine said : “ Good

morning. How do you do? How do you like the phonograph?” The machine thus

spoke for itself, and made known the fact that it was the phonograph...” 1

The rst phonograph consisted of a cylinder covered with a tin foil sheet and was

therefore called Tin Foil Phonograph. In front of the cylinder on the one side there

was a sound box for recording attached and on the other side one for reproducing

sounds. In every of these boxes a thin diaphragm was placed, which was attached

with a blunt needle. To bundle the acoustics a funnel was added to the one soundbox you were about to use. Later Tin Foil Phonograpghs were equipped with only

one funnel, which was used for recording as well as for the play-back.

Intrinsically Edison saw the main use of his phonopraph in the ofce. But in 1889

the Pacic Phonograph Co installed a coin-in-slot phonograph in San Franzisko

for entertainment purposes. As the rst commercial audio device the phonograph´s

popularity increased very fast and the commercial market grew quickly in the

USA. Sudddenly there were phonographs in every bar and restaurant, where peo-

ple could listen to music by paying a fee. But although being successful the ma -

chine also had its difculties in operation. And since the player is always at the

same time the record device, with every listening there were new sounds recorded.

In addition the tin foil wore off extremly fast.

Due to the phonograph for the rst time music became independent of local and

temporal boundaries and therefore of the availability of concert events. This caused

a great inuence on the musicians and fastened the spreading of several different

music styles. Bars with phonographs in the USA strengthened, for example, the

spreading of afro-american music, which was known only partially before in the

near environment of the composer.

1 Scientic American July 25, 1896 machine-history.com



5

This effect quickly became a global phenomenon. Music was specically pro-

duced for the world market. In the invention of the phonograph many people see

the beginning of a globalisation of music. The phonograph started a new exchange

and a mutual inuence between societies.2

Meanwhile Alexander Graham Bell improved the phonograph and developed the

graphophone 3, which worked with wax cylinders instead of the Tin Foil Cylinders

used by Edison. The main improvement was that these cylinders gave a longer

life to the recordings. But still they had to be recorded separately, which made

the mass production of the same music or sounds simply impossible, besides the

sound qualitiy was indeed acceptable but still needed enhancement.

1889 Emil Berliner built the rst gramophone after examining both the phono-

graph and the graphophone to learn about their advantages and disadvantages.Berliner wanted the recordings as widely spread as possible, therefore he needed

a solution that allowed mass reproduction. The difference to the other machines

consisted in the fact that here one turned the needle about 90 degrees vertically

and instead of a cylinder has used, a zinc record coated with beeswax with 12 cm

of diameter: The rst record was born.

This device, which was soon fabricated in series, made the disc as memory medi-

um popular. It almost completely displaced the phonopgraph and the graphophone,

because it was much more easier to handle, affordable for a broader audience and

the sound qualitiy was better and more constant. The invention and distribution of

the record changed the music by itself. Musicians started to record their pieces: in

1928 Igor Strawinski made a contract with Columbia Records to get an authentic

record of his works4.

Like the cylinders of the phonograph or the graphophone, the records went through

some improvements. The rst records had a great disadvantage compared to

Edison´s phonopraph: The duration of one was just one minute. A second problem

showed up when reproducing the master zinc record. Somehow you had to make

a negative record, which was then used to stamp positive copies in a substance

that would play the recorded music exactly. Berliner tried numerous substances

like plaster of paris, celluloid and sealing wax but with poor results. From 1897onwards, a formula of 25% shellac, a ller of a cotton compound, powdered slate

and a small amount of a wax lubricant. By the 1930s the natural shellac began to

be replaced by equivalent synthetic resin. Vinyl records were less breakable and

easier to scratch and therefore cheaper to produce.

2 Bernd Wagner - Cultural globalisation, publication of the federal headquarters for political

education; http://www.bpb.de/publikationen/VWSULT,1,0,Kulturelle_Globalisierung.html

3 Emile Berliner - The History of the Gramophone Emile Berliner (1851-1929 ) patented the

gramophone; by Mary Bellis

4 Wolfgang Burde (1982) - Strawinsky. Mainz: B. Schott’s Söhne



6

In 1931, RCA Victor launched the rst vinyl long-playing record, marketed as

“Program Transcription” discs. These discs were designed for playback with a

duration of about ten minutes playing time on both sides.

“The advantages of the Long Playing record are too obvious to require extended

comment. They minimize interruption and inconvenience: permit more logical and

complete presentation of the music idea, reduce space requirements and represent

an economy in expense that is decidedly worth considering.”5

The only issue left was the lack of a constant volacity. Originally these machines

were all turned by hand, which caused an irregular speed to the music played. The

idea of motors came up and so spring motors were attached to some of them. But

it soon became clear, that the springs used were too damageable. More power was

required to turn the gramophone, because of its heavy tone arm and horn, whichpress on the turntable. Berliner contacted Eldridge R. Johnson to enhance the me-

chanics oft the spring motor and they designed the rst electronical gramophone.

The gramophone reached its zenith by the end of the 1920s, after that the playback

worked mostly through an electrical amlier.

In 1935 for the rst time the magnetophone was invented by the company AEG.

The rst reel-to-reel tape recorder used a 6.5 mm broad, coated paper tape as

carrier material.6 The magnet plastic tape became developed years later with the

announcement of the compact audio cassette medium for audio stroage in 1962

by Philips. The sound quality of these cassettes was moderate, but with some im-

provements they became a very popular and re-recordable alternative to the 12

inch vinyl LP during the late 1970s.

Especially young people were thrilled by the possibility to record their favourite

songs from the radio in a cheap and easy way. The music industry became aware

of the danger of copyright infringements and feared possible declines in sales and

reacted with the campaign “Home Taping is Killing Music” in the 1980s.

Another important point for the popularity of the Compact cassette was the estab-

lishment of the rst car radio for cassettes by Philips in 1968 – the self-taped music

became even more mobile with it – and in 1979 the Japanese company Sony putthe rst-generation Walkman, a portable cassette player, on the market, this inven-

tion made the music completely independent of place and time.7

5 RCA Victor (1930) Record Catalog, (Camden, 1929), 4.

6 Cf. Barfe (2004), p. 159 and the following

7 Sony Corp. Info - Time Capsule Vol. 20: Walkman Finds its Way into the Global Vocabulary

http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/History/capsule/20/index.html



7

Technological Progress:

Digital Sound Carriers

The digital era of sound storage began with the Digital Audio Tape (DAT)8 a signal

recording and playback medium, which was developed by Sony and introduced in

1979. The DAT had the form of a cassette, with a magnetic tape rolled up on reels,

but with the signicant differences, that it was about half the size of the cassettes

and the recording occured in a digitised form.

Initially the DAT was meant to replace the former audio cassettes. But because of

issues of expense and concerns about unauthorised digital quality copies this for-

mat never conquered the market for the private costumers. Contrary in the profes-sional markets and as a computer storage medium it had no great but a moderate

success. In the end the Digital Audio Tape must be seen as a transitional format

from analogoue to digital technology.

In 1982 the Compact Disc was launched by Philips. But the concept for the CD

technology, like we know it today, was already developed in 1974. To be able to

state towards competing concepts from the USA and Japan, Philips searched for an

international partner. In 1979 agreed Philips with his Japanese competitor Sony to

fuse their projects and to create the world standard for the CD. By doing so Philips

and Sony created an important technological advance, because in the beginningthey were the only ones able to produce CDs. Already by the end of the 1980s

more Cds than vinyl records were sold. The sound carrier industry experienced

its biggest growth up to now. In 1993 the CD overtook the Compact Cassettes

comletely.9

Like almost all newer technologies the CD has its origin in the electronic data

processing. Aim was not to sample audio-signals any more, but to store them dig-

itally and optical legibly on a new medium to grant a permanently lossless repro-

duction. It worked with a wearless optical scanning process, that read out digitally

stored data with the help of a bundeld laser beam, and with that static noises disap-

peared and one could listen to music in a quality that had never been there before.

The Mini Disc (MD) is a magneto-optical disc-based data storage device. As re-

placement for the cassette but with the sound quality of the CD it was released in

1991 again by Sony in the USA and Europe.10 Like the CD the MD can be pre-

recorded or blank and recordable. The difference is that the Mini Disc can hold

about a 100 times more data than the CD but needs less space. For that the data had

8 Frank Endres - Broadcasting: “The hit makers - behind the scenery of the music industry“

9 Cf. Harker (1998) - 1, It’s a jungle sometimes / The music industry, the crisis and the state,

http://www2.hu-berlin.de/fpm//texte/haker1.html

10 History of the MD: http://www.minidiscforum.de/forum/mdfaq/1/1_1.htm



8

to be compressed and saved as ATRAC format. Being a magneto-optical medium

means that the information is stored and read through laser. Thereby the system is

on the one hand very exible and on the other hand it allows a great safety of the

data against objectionable inuences. The data of the MD and the table of con-tents, the so-called TOC are kept apart. At the TOC the start and end times of the

audioles are stored. If the data on the disc is edited just the TOC gets changed. 11

Only after an extreme huge number of changes one will note that the available

space for storage becomes less. Theoretical it is possible to describe a MD over

100 000 times without any quality loss. The information can be saved analogue or

digital.

11 Basic knowledge to the MD: http://www.minidiscforum.de/forum/mdfaq/1/1_4.htm



9

MPEG I Audio Layer III:

Definition

MPEG I Audio Layer III – MP3

MPEG is an acronym for the Moving Picture Experts Group. This committee is

responsible for developing international standards for the digital compression and

encoding in motion picture and studio applications.12

MP3 is the more complex of three audio compression technologies ( Layer I and

II) capable of greatly reducing the amount of data required to reproduce audio.

To reduce the data sound areas, that are hardly audible for the human ear, are leftout and the remaining data is compressed. To dene the data eliminated, so-called

psychoacoustic effects are used. Psychoacoustic means, that on the one hand one

can just perceive tone from a certain frequency difference apart from each other

and on the other hand that one hardly hears quiet sounds after loud ones. MP3 les

are typically about one tenth the size of uncompressed WAVE or AIFF les.13

12 Banner Ad Terminology on the Internet - MPEG; http://hagglers-

advertising.com/ad_peeps/banner_denitions.php

13 Tech Terms Computer Dictionary: MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3)

http://www.techterms.com/denition/mp3



10

Already in the 1970s the idea of a procedure to store diminished music les or

other kinds of data for transfering them through customary telephone lines was

born. But with their vision the scientists were far ahead of their times. The idea

encountered resistance, apparently nobody could recognise the sense in it. Finally

in the 1980s researchers began to develop the technology. 1987 the Frauenhofer-

Institut for integrated circuits working in cooperation with AT&T and Thomson14

introduced their result: MPEG 1 Audio Layer III – the new technology to compress

sound digitally multiple times over. For the rst time it was possible to reduce

the size of music les so strongly that a spreading on the internet – even with aslow network link via modem – made sense.15 This formed the technological back-

ground for the fast increasing popularity and spreading of the new le format.16

With the le sharing network Napster the MP3 format succeeded as music me -

dium on the internet. Napster works on the base of the peer-to-peer (P2P) principle

on which also all other music sharing networks even today are built up. With the

P2P exchange the computers of the participants are linked with each other to build

a network and within this network les from index lists can be used by everyone.

First it was just usable as a software linked with a suitable device. But after therise of Napster and similar networks the format became so popular, that there

was a need for devices that most of the people could use. By the end of 1998 the

rst MP3 player for the mass market “Rio PMP300” – soon followed by clearly

smaller models – was produced by Diamond Multimedia. One month after its an-

nouncement the Recording Industry Association, an union of the most important

music labels of America, sued the manufacturer, because in their view the device

injured the Audio Home Recording Act.

The Audio Home Recording Act (AHRA)17 was approved in 1992 in addition to

the US copyright law, which is tailored on the DAT technology. It prohibits produc-

tion, import and spreading of digital audiorecord devices coming without SCMS18

or a comparable system, and machines, which primary purpose is, to avoid, re-

move or deactivate copy protection mechanisms.

14 Bluray-disc.de - MP3 http://www.bluray-disc.de/lexikon/mp3

15 Cf. Friedrichsen (2004), p. 44 and the following

16 Cf. Schult (1999) - 1, Music is a Shrinking - The computer becomes a sound carrier - and themusic industry rotates, http://www.heise.de/ct/99/14/078/

17 17 U.S.C. §1001-10 (1992).

18 Serial Copy Management System prevents the illegal production of multiple generations of digital

copies from a copyright-protected original. Making a single copy for personal use by owners of

the Digital Audio Home Recorders is permitted. http://www.mam-a.com/audio_technical


History



11

The victory of Rio in this court procedure made an existence on a broader market

for MP3 devices possible. But In 2001 the real triumphal procession of the MP3

player started with Apple unveiling its rst generation iPod, which was immedi-

ately a sales success. Within the shortest time the device reached cult status.

The iPod was a hard disc based digital music player that was smaller than most

portable tape decks. Apple distinguished the iPod from former players in several

ways. The iPod could compete with both ash-based and hard disc based players.

By using a 1.8” hard disc, Apple was able to make the iPod smaller than other

players. The iPod represented the perfect compromise between size and storage

capacity. In 2002 Apple introduced the second generation for the iPod. Through

the Musicmatch music box it was compatible with Windows computers, too. The

iPod now reaching a broader audience has become the market leader.19

The advantages are clear: MP3 player are much more practical and smaller and

they offer more memory and playback time. The MP3 format is used by more

devices and people than any other le-based digital-audio format. (On this point

it is to say, that nowadays the term MP3 format is a very general indication for a

variety of digital audio formats that now exist but work device-independent.) In

comparison to the CD, which can be destroyed by a simple scratch, a MP3 le is

indestructible. With the CD player being too unwieldy and sensitive to vibration

the invention of the MP3 player and the related format became a fulminating suc-

cess. And at last to get a MP3 le there is less time needed. There is no need any-

more to go to the next musics store, search for the desired item, pay and go back

again. One click is enough and the song is yours.

19 iPod 2001 - http://www.apple-history.com/



12


Social Impact

The progress in the development of MP3 players has produced a row of new plat-

forms, as for example legal and illegal P2P networks, online radios or download

sites, which have contributed to a huge popularity of this music format. With the

help of CD writers CDs can be quite simply copied and then saved as MP3 les

before being downloaded or exchanged on the Internet – free of charge. Due to

this easy access to music and the facility to manipulate these les as we wanted

and the fact, that the copyright laws had not been cleared completly, people almost

have been encouraged to save their money and download everything they wanted.

Now we have to question the effects on traditional music media and how much wevalue music these days and in the end how much we value the artists, who live for

and from their music.20 Or was it the fault of the recording industry, which did not

realise, what kind of impact P2P networks have?

The music industry did not think about the distribution of MP3 les, because their

focus lay on the traditional sound carriers as for example the CD. Meanwhile this

format got so popular, because it was and is much more comfortable to have a

digitally stored music collection rather than many different CDs in a rack. These

collections allowed a better overview and accessability, which means one was able

to reach the les easily and in addition one could create a more personal musicexperience.

Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Associate professor in Harvard business School, took stand

on this problem during an interview:

„Do you know somebody, who buys 10.000 songs for himself? Of course not.

Nevertheless, there is a product - the iPod - with which one can store 10.000 songs.

Apple is one of the companies, which earns millions of dollars, because there are

sharing networks. Up to now only the record companies haven´t found a way to

react to it appropriately.”21

Imagine 10.000 songs in your CD rack in comparison to 10.000 les on your hard

disc, where everything is automatically sorted.On a hard disc you can control this

number of tracks, while you would loose control having them stored on CDs.

20 Cf. Schramm (2007), p. 134 and the following21 Jetzt.de - Felix Oberholzer-Gee: Piracy does no damage;

http://jetzt.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/370804



13

Nowadays a customary MP3 player has between 8 and 16 GB of storage capacity.

And the storage capacity border is not reached yet. There are already MP3 play-

ers with a hard disc, which offers 120 GB of storage capacity. The consumer gets

more and more possibilites and is manipulated by the advertising that he still hasnot enough.

Being pushed so hard one got the feeling to literally need to get this MP3 player

full of data. But the question was, why we should pay for it, if we can get eve-

rything for free? This sheer abundance led to minor valuation of music and the

artist´s work. Music was no speciality anymore. Do we even recognise, when mu-

sic is playing?

When the market distinctly collapsed, the companies started to admit that there

will be no way around the MP3 format, because of its great popularity. In order toconne digital music piracy the industry had to give the consumer a better under-

standing of the value of music. Campaigns like the “education campaign”, which

was launched by the British Phonographic Industry to stop customers illegally

downloading music 22 should on the one hand sensibilise the consumer for the

meaning of piracy, on the other hand music should become emotional again and

therefore more valuable.

Parallel to the educational advertising through campaigns, companies made it

pretty clear that sharing music for free on sites like Napster is an illegal action and

started to sue many consumers. In hope to set a deterrent sign they used extremely

high forfeits and handled these proceedings in a way, that draw as much media at-

tention as possible on it as the case of Jammie Thomas-Rasset shows.

“The woman from Minnesota ghted the recording industry, because of over 24

songs she illegally downloaded and shared online four years ago.…A jury in Min-

neapolis decided today that she was liable for $1.5 million in copyright infringe-

ment damages to Capitol Records, or $62,500 for each song she illegally shared

in April 2006.”23

In addition they started to nd options to distribute their music, that were different

from the traditional ways and adopted the idea of the le sharing networks. Onecould buy every song, album or compilation he wants, with all the advantages

P2P networks offered: digital les on your hard disc, which are sorted and always

available. The best known distribution ways at the moment are the iTunes Store

from Apple and Amazon.

22 Broadband News - Virgin Media launches illegal download “education campaign”; Garnet Roach

http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/virgin-media-launches-illegal-download-education-

campaign-060608.html

23 Cnet Steven Musil - Jammie Thomas hit with $1.5 million verdict

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20021735-93.html



14

Through these steps the recording industry managed to bring back the worship of

other people´s work. Consumers started to rethink and change their music con-

sumption. Instead of downloading everything for free, even if they do not really

need some of the les. They now knowingly buy their music and pay much moreattention to what they are listening. The willingness to pay again for les that are

wanted is increasing with every day that passes by.



15

Conclusion

The invention of the MP3 technology was probably one of the most successful in

the sound carrier history. The demand for digital music will grow and with every

device and every media playing software being based on the MP3 format it will

have a great chance to survive. Maybe that it will go through some developments

but the base will stay the same.

As for the social impact it seems, that there is a change in the handling of digital

les. People are now more aware of the fact, that they might injure copyrights by

downloading les for free. And the music industry experienced, that they cannothinder progress, but instead successfully deal with it by giving the consumer al-

ternatives. In the end it is to hope that the further development will be satiesfying

for all parties involved.



16

1 Scientic American July 25, 1896 machine-history.com

2 Bernd Wagner - Cultural globalisation, publication of the federal

headquarters for political education; http://www.bpb.de/publikationen/

VWSULT,1,0,Kulturelle_Globalisierung.html

3 Emile Berliner - The History of the Gramophone Emile Berliner

by Mary Bellis

4 Wolfgang Burde - Strawinsky. Mainz: B. Schott’s Söhne 1982

5 RCA Victor 1930 Record Catalog, (Camden, 1929), 4.

6 Barfe, Louis (2004): Where have all the good times gone?London: Atlantic Books

7 Sony Corp. Info - Time Capsule Vol. 20: Walkman Finds its Way into the

Global Vocabulary http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/CorporateInfo/

History/capsule/20/index.html

8 Frank Endres - Broadcasting: “The hit makers - behind the scenery of the

music industry“ http://www.planet-wissen.de/kultur_medien/musik/

geschichte_der_tontraeger/index.jsp

9 Harker (1998) - 1, It’s a jungle sometimes / The music industry, the crisis

and the state, http://www2.hu-berlin.de/fpm//texte/haker1.html

10 History of the MD: http://www.minidiscforum.de/forum/mdfaq/1/1_1.htm11 Basic knowledge to the MD: http://www.minidiscforum.de/forum/

mdfaq/1/1_4.htm

12 Banner Ad Terminology on the Internet - MPEG; http://hagglers-

advertising.com/ad_peeps/banner_denitions.php

13 Tech Terms Computer Dictionary: MP3 (MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3)

http://www.techterms.com/denition/mp3

14 Bluray-disc.de - MP3 http://www.bluray-disc.de/lexikon/mp3

15 Friedrichsen, Mike (2004): Future of the music industry: the alternative

Media management for the MP3 age. Munich: Reinhard Fischer

16 Schult (1999) - 1, Music is a Shrinking - The computer becomes a

sound carrier - and the music industry rotates, http://www.heise.de/

ct/99/14/078/

17 17 U.S.C. §1001-10 (1992).

18 MAM-A Inc - Denition SCMS http://www.mam-a.com/audio_technical

19 iPod 2001 - http://www.apple-history.com/

20 Schramm, Holger (2007) - Music and media, in: HBI, special edition

music and media, p. 120-137. Baden-Baden: Nomos

References



17

21 Jetzt.de - Felix Oberholzer-Gee: Piracy does no damage;

http://jetzt.sueddeutsche.de/texte/anzeigen/370804

22 Broadband News - Virgin Media launches illegal download

“education campaign”; Garnet Roach http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/virgin-media-launches-illegal-download-education-campaign-060608.html

23 Cnet Steven Musil - Jammie Thomas hit with $1.5 million verdict

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20021735-93.html

Documents

Audio technologies and their impact