Music consumption before the technological revolution.

The history begins with the phonograph which soon became the inspiration for the gramophone which was regarded by the United States Gramophone Company as "a machine for home entertainment and the mass-production of music discs". A switch in consumption took place, as previously consumers just wanted to buy the hardware (such as the gramophone itself) and the industry had to promote the software (music records) as being worth buying in themselves. This led to the first recording studio being opened and the creation of a mass audience. Following a slump in the industry in the1930's a small number of major recording companies survived which established the music industry as we know it today. Soon radios replaced record players in people's homes and were seen as a threat to the music industry so companies became obsessed with big sales. They became less concerned to service an existing public taste than to create new tastes, to manipulate demand. They managed to use the radio to their advantage, by using a star system and promoting these stars via the radio, to create popularity and consumption. Soon it became obvious that with new technology emerging, there was a need to improve recorded sound quality and to ease record storage and preservation. By 1950 tape recording had replaced disc recording entirely, and this eventually developed into digital recording and compact discs. From this history of the 20th century we move on to the 21st, and the development of digital files.