The music industry has two parts: the highly visible "tip of the iceberg" is millionaire rock star singers and instrumental musicians (often on lead guitar or other flashy instruments) and composers and wealthy, flamboyant recording industry CEOs and record producers. These individuals get most of the headlines and media interviews, and the lion's share of the profits, but most of the work in the music industry is the huge "rest of the iceberg," which is hidden to most people.
The lesser-known, behind-the-scenes individuals include arrangers, orchestrators, lyricists, session musicians, touring side musicians, backup singers, choir members, orchestra performers, accompanists, venue operators, touring road crew staff, music coaches, music instructors, vocal coaches, music journalists, music critics, music scholars, musical instrument designers, builders and repairers, and sound engineers.
So next time you see a clip of your favorite star recording their new song, remember that a songwriting coach may have given assistance with crafting the lyrics and chords, a vocal coach may have helped them hit the high notes, an arranger probably penned the violin parts, and a whole team of audio engineers did the microphones, mixing and effects that makes them sound so good.
18th century-19th century
The music industry has changed over the centuries. In the 18th century and throughout the 19th century, the music industry was based around live orchestra, opera, and chamber music concerts and sales of sheet music and scores. A big change in the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century was the decreased role of the church and the aristocracy in supporting music composing and concerts. Of course popes still commissioned Masses and kings and queens still commissioned symphonies and bankrolled opera performances, but increasingly, composers and performers tried to fund their projects with the rising middle class of merchants and professionals. Composers and virtuoso soloists increasingly organized concerts or hired managers to do so.The Rock Star of the 18th century and the 19th century was the glamorous opera singer and, to a lesser degree, the virtuoso instrumental soloist, typically playing violin or piano. The top opera singers made huge salaries and just like today's rock singers, they were objects of obsessive affection by their fans. Opera singers lived the "rock star lifestyle", too, leaving a trail of messy luxury hotel suites, bills for carriages, empty bottles of Luxurious Liquor and costly wine, and broken-hearted lovers in their wake. The top virtuoso instrumental soloists also captured the public attention for their dazzling displays of technical mastery.
The middle class music lovers had a passion for singing, playing piano, and performing chamber music in string quartets and other small groups. Music publishers sought to serve this market by producing a steady stream of sheet music with popular opera arias and melodies arranged for amateur-level performance. Music publishers hired arrangers to convert music from one form to another form. For example, arrangers would produce a "reduction" of a popular symphony that could be played by one or two piano players. As well, arrangements of opera arias would be done for voice and piano. These arrangements enabled well-off music lovers to put on informal concerts in their parlors for friends and family. This enabled music lovers to hear and perform the latest marches, overtures, and popular songs.
The industry for sheet music shows one of the quirks of technological change: the coexistence of old and new technology. By the 18th century, printing presses were well established and music was being mass-produced. If you were a church official and you wanted tens of thousands of copies of a new hymnal or mass, printing press was the most logical choice. But if you were a wealthy Duke at your summer castle note , and you command your court composer to write you a new opera, that one-off, original opera score and the parts for the orchestra musicians will probably be handwritten with a quill pen. If the Duke really wants to impress the visiting princess from Bavaria, and tells the composer to double the number of violins, the composer would hire a copyist to hand-copy the string parts. If that opera became a smash hit, it might eventually get mass-printed, but otherwise, it would be all hand-written.
The 19th century had many improvements in music technology of a mechanical nature. Violins had their bodies changed and strengthened so that they could project a louder volume in the bigger concert halls. The string instruments got rid of their gut strings and replaced them with steel strings, which had a more brilliant, louder sound. Pianos got bigger and had their mechanisms changed so that they could produce a more powerful sound. Pipe organs got pneumatic systems that made them more responsive. Brass instruments and woodwinds got improved key mechanisms, and new instruments were developed.
The way that orchestras performed changed between the early 18th century and about 1800. In the early 18th century, if you saw an orchestra perform, it would typically be led by a harpsichord player who played with one hand while cuing the orchestra with the other hand. By 1800, the harpsichord started being phased out and a new position was created: the conductor. The conductor beat time and cued the musicians, but they didn't play an instrument onstage.
The "harpsichord player cues with their free hand" method may have worked for a 1740s symphony which was basically just two "voices" (first and second violins playing the melody and cellos and double bass hammering out the bassline), but as the nineteenth century went on, symphony music got more and more complex, with more instruments, countermelodies, and interweaving parts. A dedicated "traffic cop"-type leader was needed to tell everyone when to stop and go. By the end of the 19th century, some symphonic works included hundreds of musicians for the core orchestra, plus harps, a pipe organ and a huge choir. Some huge works even had an additional conductor to lead offstage performers.
By the end of the 19th century, the conductor was much more than a bandleader; they were celebrities in their own right. Fans wanted to see top conductors and conductors were lauded for their unique interpretations of symphonies. Conductors were seen as creative artists who put their own stamp on the symphonies by choosing tempos and guiding the solo instrument performers.
1900-1940s
With the invention of sound recording in the 1900s, the importance of recording industry jobs started to challenge the dominance of the sheet music industry. The invention of radio also affected the industry, as it allowed performers to become famous over a much wider area. New technologies also affected live music. The invention of guitar amplifiers and speakers and public address speakers enabled a small group to fill a big club or even a huge auditorium with sound. Many new music industry jobs developed in the 1930s and 1940s, such as radio deejay, sound engineer, and electric instrument technician (repairing electric guitars and guitar amps).The new electric instruments were all based roughly around existing acoustic instruments, and included the electric guitar, the electric bass, the electric piano, and the Hammond organ. The electric guitar and bass guitar took a solid wooden guitar body and added a magnetic pickup. The electric piano added a magnetic pickup to either a small piano with metal strings or a small piano with metal tines. The Hammond organ had rotating metal tonewheels controlled by drawbars.
These new electric instruments had to be plugged into an electric amplifier and speaker to be heard. The Hammond organ was often plugged into a Leslie cabinet, an amplifier inside a big cabinet with a rotating horn and a rotating woofer baffle, which created a swirly, chorusing effect. The use of electrically amplified signals enabled performers to play louder and fill even big venues with sound.
As well, since they were based around an electrical signal, it could be modified with electronic effects such as reverb, vibrato and tremolo. The use of pickups, microphones and speakers enabled performers from different styles to develop their unique tone and sound.
All the way up to the 1940s, to record a song, all of the singers and instrumental performers had to be gathered into the studio at the same time. This meant if your lead trumpet player couldn't make it, you couldn't record. As well, if the saxophone player made a big mistake in a solo, you had to restart the whole recording. In the mid-1940s, researchers managed to put multiple tracks on the same tape.
1950s-1970s
By the 1950s, these experiments allowed multitrack recording, with the 1955 Ampex unit allowing eight tracks. This made recording easier, because you didn't have to get all the performers together on the same day. You could record bass on one track, drums on one track, and so on, and then add solo parts and vocals a week or a month later. You could bring in a lead guitarist after the whole band had recorded to add a guitar solo. By the 1960s, record producers realized that multitrack recording also enabled new creative options. You could layer tracks and combine different sounds to produce a result that couldn't be recreated live. The Beatles and other artists added backwards tape effects and other creative touches.The previous section noted that a number of electric instruments and amplifiers were introduced. This helped instruments to be louder and fill bigger venues with sound. In the era before amplifiers and speakers, if a big, noisy bar owner wanted a group to fill the venue with loud music, they'd need to hire a 20-piece jazz big band (multiple saxophones, trumpets, trombones and a rhythm section). But with electric amplifiers and speakers, a bar owner could save money by hiring an organ trio (amplified Hammond organ, electric guitar and sax) or a rock power trio (electric guitar, electric bass, drums, with one or more members singing as well).
Using amplifiers and speakers also helped usher in new sounds. For example, blues harmonica ("blues harp") players used a microphone and small amplifier-speaker and got a growling tone from the natural tube overdrive. Similarly, electric guitar players who turned up their tube amps also got a rich, saturated tone that added sustain and color. In the late 1960s and in the 1970s, electric guitarists and electric piano players experimented with all sorts of electronic effects to get psychedelic sounds.
In the 1960s and 1970s, synthesizers did exist but they were rare, expensive and complex to use. Some early synthesizers required the performer to plug in a large number of connector cables between a rack of different modules just to get one synthesizer sound (that same sound could be obtained in the 2020s with one button press). This meant that synthesizers were mostly used in music studios and by well-off star performers.
1980s
In the 1980s, audio cassettes became popular. Audio cassettes did not have as good sound quality as vinyl records, but their compact, sturdy design enabled music lovers to listen to songs on the go by carrying big "boom boxes", carrying personal cassette players like the iconic Sony Walkman, or listening in their car stereo. "Mix tapes", homemade collections of songs recorded from records or other tapes onto a tape, were used both to gather one's favorite songs for personal listening and to give it as a gift.In the 1980s, inexpensive cassette tape-based four-track recorders were popular. These units enabled a generation of Garage Bands and punk bands to record demos in their basement. Another 1980s trend was music videos, which were shown on regular TV stations and on cable music stations such as Music Television (MTV). Many new music industry jobs developed in the 1980s, such as synthesizer player, synthesizer programmer, and electronic drum machine programmer.
Both synthesizers and electronic drum machines were viewed with trepidation by professional musicians, who worried that the new devices would be used to replace human performers. A synthesizer with a string ensemble sound patch can reproduce the lush sound of a string orchestra of fifty musicians. An electronic drum machine can replace a drummer or even, with a Latin setting, a percussion ensemble. Despite the concerns of professional musicians, digital instruments proved popular with audiences. The sustained synthesizer sounds of the DX-7 became a common background instrument in pop songs and in some rock styles. The electronic drum machine's programmed drum beat (particularly the insistent hi-hat eighth notes and the "thud-thud" of the bass drum) became the hallmark sound of late-1980s House Music, a style of electronic dance music.
House Music also exemplified the new emancipation from costly studio-based music production. While House music was heavily influenced by 1970s disco, because both were dance music with a strong beat, the big difference was in production. Disco records were made in expensive music studios, using professional session musicians, percussionists and singers, and the music used arrangers and orchestrators and complex recording and mixing. In contrast, the early house music was made at home by DJ-producers, using mixers, drum machines and samples. This DIY trend continued with techno, another electronic dance music designed for dance clubs.
The affordability of synthesizers, sequencers, MIDI modules, and electronic drum machines made it possible for performers to automate basslines, chords and drum parts. This allowed a one-man-band or a few performers to have a full, rich sound. While the downside for performers was that venues could put on shows with fewer musicians, new music jobs were created elsewhere in the music industry. In the 1980s, albums started listing synthesizer programmer and drum machine programmers in the credits.
1990s
In the 1990s, digital Compact Discs replaced audio cassettes and records. This was a boon for the recording companies, as many music lovers replaced their tapes and records with CDs. The downside of CDs for recording companies was that it was easy for consumers to make perfect digital copies, which dented sales.note By the end of the 1990s, musicians started to explore reading music parts on computer screens, an approach that would develop over the coming decades.In the early 1990s, Perry Farrell, the singer for Jane's Addiction, launched Lollapalooza, an indie music festival. In the late 1990s, Sarah McLaughan became frustrated that festivals were dominated by male artists and bands, so she launched Lilith Fair, a music festival for female artists.
2000s
In the early 2000s, the recording industry went through a revolution as long-established ways of recording and selling music, such as selling physical copies of recordings in stores, was replaced by online sales of digital recordings and streaming content. As well, music publishers that had long only sold sheet music for popular songs in paper versions started selling the sheet music as a digital copy, which you read from a computer screen or tablet. The rise of online sheet music was great for music consumers, because you had access to thousands of songs; however, local music stores found it hard to sell paper sheet music in retail outlets once customers could buy it online and get it instantly.With digital recording software, new bands and artists could record music at home on a laptop, thus making it easier to produce music. In addition to digital recording software, musicians had access to digital effects, digital mastering software, and digital versions of instruments (e.g., digital samples of orchestral instruments). By the 2020s, a film composer could record, mix and edit a score for full orchestra all in their bedroom using sampled orchestral instruments, a powerful computer, MIDI keyboards, and digital editing and effects. In the previous decades, this type of film score project would have cost tens of thousands of dollars note and now it can be done at home!
Another technology that changed music was digital pitch correction. In the 1970s and 1980s, singers had to study and train their voices to sing perfectly in tune. With digital pitch correction devices such as Autotune, the computer automatically fixes pitch errors so singing sounds in tune. Critics say that it is enabling less-skilled singers to sound perfect. Another criticism is that pitch-corrected vocals sound too perfect, since the variation in pitch is removed. Defenders of pitch correction point out that a singer in a 2020s pop band is often expected to do complex, demanding dance routines in concerts, which makes it hard to sing perfectly. Another use of Autotune is intentionally using extreme settings to create robotic vocal effects. Some other controversial trends include the use of ghost singers and offstage singers to sing in place of the singer, and lip syncing on live shows.
With the development of music websites and video platforms, emerging bands could upload their music online, reducing the challenges with music industry "gatekeepers" that earlier eras of bands had to face. As well, with widely-available digital editing software and digital cameras capable of recording high quality digital video, emerging bands can even record their own videos and upload them online. This is a Good News, Bad News situation for emerging artists. The good news is you can record and album and a DIY video and post them online, with no "gatekeepers" that block you. The bad news is so can every other of the emerging artists, so your new song is like a drop in a huge ocean. In 2023, Sony Music's boss, Rob Stringer, said that over 100,000 songs are uploaded to streaming platforms every day.
One of the other trends in the modern music industry is consolidation: a few music companies dominate music recording distribution and live concerts. In one sense, this means "gatekeepers" are back. Sure, a teenage Garage Band can make a home recording on a laptop and post it online, but if they want it to make money on a streaming platform, they'll need a deal with a top platform so that their songs will get algorithmically pushed higher in rankings. As well, they can pile into an old van and do a DIY road tour of small clubs and bars, but if they want to sell tickets through a big company and fill a stadium, they'll need to go through the MegaCorp companies that dominate live concerts. These firms take a big cut of proceeds and even take a cut of band merchandise.
In the 2020s, despite the dominance of digital technologies in every aspect of popular music production, distribution, performance and listening, artists, producers and music fans also have an interest in vintage technologies. Rock guitar players in the 2020s seek out 1950s Fender guitar amplifiers with vacuum tubes powering the speaker. Blues organ players seek out 1940s Hammond organs with rotating tonewheels. Music lovers and DJs buy old vinyl records for home listening or mixing in clubs. DJs and producers in electronic dance music styles use 1980s-era Roland drum machines. Some 2020s-era indie bands even release music on cassettes or vinyl records.
These older technologies have some drawbacks compared to 2020s technologies. Old gear may take more maintenance and it may have less features. To give an example, a 1960s fuzz pedal only does one sound effect, whereas a 2020s digital effect pedal may provide a hundred effects. However, for vintage gear enthusiasts, the older gear has tone qualities and "feel" that new technology cannot match.
