Monetizing Entertainment

The Label Business—Recording Budgets

8

The Invention

The Parisian Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville (1817–1879) was the first to make a sound recording, in 1857. He developed a visual way to convert sound waves into physical lines on a rotating cylinder, applying for a patent and his invention of the phonautograph.¹ Scott de Martinville had invented a process to record a soundwave, but not how to play it back. As a matter of fact, when we pause and think about it, the entertainment and music industry has always been device-driven, so let’s start this chapter by taking a look into the history of essential processes and devices we now take for granted that allowed recordings to happen, which led to the development of record labels and fostered ...