Technology has been central to the production, distribution, and consumption of music throughout the history of the contemporary music industry. Electronic instruments and recording technologies expand the creative possibilities for artists; media—both in their broadcast and commodity forms—provide opportunities and challenges to music publishers, labels, and distributors; creative and business synergies are found by partnering with other culture industries; and interactive technologies disrupt the top-down industrial paradigm. This course examines the history and socio-cultural contexts of several specific technological developments in the music industry.

Organizations and individuals in the music industry have long had to balance predictable and successful business and artistic practices against the need for innovation. Changes in such diverse areas as consumer taste, communications technology, copyright law, and recording media function as broad external forces that have preceded and predicated disruptions in the music industry: shifts that significantly alter both the ways in which business is conducted and the music industry’s landscape at large. In this class, we will examine several such case studies in-depth, with a goal of understanding the precedents, circumstances, and ramifications of disruptions throughout the history of the music industry.