History of music publishing
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This article details the History of music publishing.
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[edit] Overview
Music publishing did not begin on a large scale until the mid-15th century, with the first printing of music. The earliest existence of printed music dates from about 1465, and then only liturgical chants were printed. This date falls shortly after the printing of the Gutenberg Bible and the invention of movable type.
[edit] Early publishing
Before the advent of Gutenberg and his printing press, all music was copied out by hand, an expensive and time-consuming process. Consequently, little music prior to the 16th century remains; the majority that is extant is sacred music of the Catholic church. The priests and monks of the church spent large amounts of time painstakingly copying the chants for every day of the church year. We have very little secular music prior to 1500. The collections we do have were owned by wealthy noblemen, such as the Squarcialupi Codex, of Italian Trecento music, or the Chantilly Codex of French Ars subtilior music.
The father of modern music printing was a man named Ottaviano Petrucci, a printer and publisher who flourished in large measure thanks to a twenty-year monopoly of printed music in Venice during the 16th century. His first collection was entitled Harmonice musices odhecaton A, and contained 96 polyphonic compositions, mostly by Josquin des Prez and Heinrich Isaac. Petrucci flourished by publishing mainly Flemish works, rather than Italian, as Flemish works were very popular throughout Europe in the Renaissance. Petrucci used a triple-impression method of printing music, in which a sheet of paper was pressed 3 times. The first impression was the staff lines, the second the words, and the third the notes. This method produced very clean results, though it was time-consuming and expensive.
Around 1520 in England, John Rastell developed a single-impression method for printing music. This method was adopted and used widely by a Frenchman, Pierre Attaingnant. With his method, the staff lines, words, and notes were all part of a single piece of type, making it much easier to produce. However, this method produced messier results, as the staff lines often did not line up exactly and looked wavy on the page. The single-impression method eventually triumphed over Petrucci's, however, and became the dominant mode of printing until copper-plate engraving took over in the 17th century.
[edit] Copyright
In order to give the neophyte industry legal backing, another aspect was required - this was the legal underpinnings of what is known today as copyright law, which actually was law to prevent unauthorized copying. Copyright law developed from the earliest monopoly held by Petrucci in Venice, and later a similar monopoly granted by Queen Elizabeth I to William Byrd and Thomas Tallis. Later, King Henry VIII of England passed a law, which required copies of all printed matter to be sent to the king and offered protection to printers in the form of licenses. This benefited the king with a new source of revenue.
The licensing act of 1662 in England required the printer of every book to print on it a certificate of the licensor, stating that it contained no writing "contrary to the Christian faith, or the doctrine or discipline of the church of England against the state and government of the realm, or contrary to good life or good manners, or otherwise".
It was in 1709 that the Statute of Anne was promulgated, which gave protection of a work initially for a period of 21 years, later extended to 28 years.
In the United States, protecting music initially was not a priority. In 1789 when the first congress of the US passed the first federal copyright law, music was not included. The U.S. Congress did not consider the industry a priority. The law was not expanded to include music until 1831. The copyright term for protection was 28 years plus a 14-year renewal period.
France followed with establishing their own copyright law. Soon began a movement for some international accord, which eventually came about at the meeting of Bern in 1886.
The 14 original member states of the Bern union adopted what is referred to as the Bern Convention.
The core of the Convention is its provision that each of the contracting countries shall provide automatic protection for works in other countries of the union and for unpublished works whose authors are citizens of or residents in such other countries.
It is essential to understand that copyright law as it evolved, encompassed not merely the right to print, but the right to collect revenue from all rights including but not limited to performance rights and phonographic rights. As of April 2000, over 76 countries have approved membership in the Bern convention.
[edit] Performing rights
While England was the leader in the development of the legal protection of copyright, the honor of the development of the collection of performing rights goes to the French.
In 1777, Beaumarchais founded an organization, "Bureau de legislation Dramatique" which later in 1829 became the Societé des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques (SACD) pursuant to which theatres agreed to pay playwrights a portion of their takings by the Society.
In 1847, the author Ernest Bourget had the idea of claiming the performing right in the Café Concerts and other establishments which used songs and or musical works.
One night in 1850, Ernest Bourget and two other composers, Parizot and Henrion, heard one of their works performed by an orchestra in the Café Des Ambassadeurs where they were having a drink. They refused to pay on the pretext that the owner of the establishment was using their works to entertain the customers without any remuneration to the authors.
Subsequently, a lawsuit and trial took place, which was won by the authors and in 1851, resulted in the formation of the Societe des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Editeurs de Musiques (SACEM) – the first performing rights society in the world. Other countries followed suit.
In 1882 the Italian Society SIAE was founded. In 1903 the predecessor society to the current German society GEMA was formed by Richard Strauss in 1903, which became GEMA IN 1915 when it merged with another small society.
So we can see that by the end of the 19th century virtually all the steps were in place to safeguard the rights of a composer and therefore to render the activity of music publishing a viable business.
[edit] Music publishing
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Through the 19th century increasing urbanization, the possibility of mass circulation of cheap printed materials, and the rapid growth of music hall and vaudeville led to the development of modern music publishing.
Technology would add the final ingredient – lithography, which was invented in Germany in 1798. Music could now be mass-produced more cheaply than by the conventional method of engraved plates. The scene was set for the commercial explosion of popular music.
Germany, following the great outpouring of German music in the 18th and 19th centuries, was the birthplace of modern music publishing.
[edit] German publishing
In the 18th Century, the great German music publishing enterprises came into being. Breitkopf of Leipzig was the first significant name. He was a printer and general publisher and became a music printer in 1754. His business success was largely founded on improvements in the setting of music type. Hartel joined the firm in 1795 and then began the publication of the great series of the complete works of various composers for which the house is still famous, including Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Wagner. Breitkopf and Hartel were original publishers of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Wagner, complete editions of Bach, Schutz, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, also Furtwangler and Hindemith.
Schott Music of Mainz was founded in 1770 and still exists today. They published French and Italian operas (Donizetti, Rossini), and later such authors as Hindemith, Stravinsky, Orff, Schoenberg, Henze & Wagner.
Simrock of Bonn and later Berlin was established in 1790. Their original authors were Beethoven, Haydn, Meyerbeer, Webver, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms. Firms were soon founded including Artaria of Vienna 1778-1932, the original publisher of Mozart.
Musikverlag Josef Weinberger of Frankfurt was founded in 1885 in Vienna. They published operettas by Kalman, Lehar, Offenbach, Stolz, Strauss and others. One can see from the large number of music publishing houses which were founded in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Germany advanced quickly to the top of the music publishing world.
All of these publishers are still active in the 21st century. Music was evolving too.
[edit] Popularization
One of the essential changes which took place in the late 19th and early 20th century was the popularization of music. Music of course had started in churches as a liturgical form. By the end of the 19th century it had moved from the churches to the aristocracy and now in all countries, was reaching the masses. Naturally music publishers and diffusion of printed music contributed to this diffusion.
It is difficult to say exactly what came first, as there was a musical explosion throughout Europe and indeed in the United States.
Towards the middle of the 19th century a lighter operatic form made its appearance. The precursor of this development is certainly John Gay’s Beggars Opera in England composed in 1728. Of unusual popularity and frequently revised to this day, Beggars Opera heralded music for the masses.
It took over a hundred years after the Beggars Opera’s premiere but the explosion of the new popular music form was extensive and international.
The launch of the new music was almost simultaneous in Paris, Vienna and London.
French Opérette and Opéra Bouffe as we know it today, began in Paris in the Second Empire.
The inventor was an eccentric but highly gifted individual, who called himself Hervé. His real name was Florimond Ronger, and he was always known by the nickname “Le Compositeur Tocqué”.
As a young man, Hervé was appointed organist to a lunatic asylum in Paris. I have no idea whether this helped his composing.
Hervé became the conductor at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal where he established himself as a successful composer.
But it was Offenbach who consolidated and expanded what Hervé had begun.
Offenbach gave Paris a series of satirical operettas which enchanted and convulsed his audiences, such as “La Vie Pariesienne”, “La Belle Hélène”, and “Orphéee aux Enfers”.
Offenbach’s fame spread to Vienna where he became the toast of the town. He was to be supplanted in the hearts of the Viennese.
The new man of the moment was Johann Strauss, the composer of the popular “Blue Danube” waltz and “Tales of the Vienna Woods”.
Strauss was the first pop star the world has ever known. He was perhaps the most popular composer who ever lived. He toured Europe unceasingly with his own orchestra.
After Offenbach’s success in Vienna, Johann Strauss was persuaded by his manager and his wife to try his hand at operetta. His first operatta “Indigo, or The Forty Thieves” was produced in 1870. There followed no less than fifteen Johann Strauss operettas which included the incomparable, “Die Fledermaus”.
The successors of Strauss included a whole new breed of “modern” composers which included such greats as Franz Lehár who composed “The Merry Widow” among others, and Emmerich Kálmán.
In England, at roughly the same moment, Gilbert and Sullivan burst onto the scene. For twenty years commencing with “The Sorcerer” in 1877 and “The Grand Duke” in 1896, Gilbert & Sullivan occupied a place in popular music history, which has perhaps never been supplanted.
Popular music had been invented, and classical music would never quite reach the same level of acceptance by the public.
We should not leave this moment in history, without mentioning the Italian operas of the period, since this was the time of Verdi and Puccini, of “La Traviata”, “Il Travatore”, “Don Giovanni”, “La Boheme”, “Madame Butterfly” and so very many more. All of which, of course, we extraordinarily popular both in Italy and throughout the world.
[edit] Sheet music
The prime commercial beneficiary was sheet music. To give you some idea of the popularity of sheet music, in the U.S. during the first decade of the 20th century the million-seller was commonplace. During that decade nearly 100 songs each sold over one million copies. At that time, one million copies of sheet music yielded approximately $100,000 (about €700,00 in today’s money) for the publisher.
In England, the “Ratcatcher’s Daughter” sold over 250,000 copies of sheet music.
With the Internet era (starting in 1994) sheet music publishers are taking place on the Internet proposing digital sheet music for instant download to a wider audience by making sheet music available easily and cheaply (see Virtual Sheet Music).
[edit] United States
Turning to the United States and a brief step backward in time--- in 1764, Paul Revere, no less, and Josiah Flagg compiled the first collection of popular and religious music, printed on paper made in the colonies. Probably the most popular revolutionary war song was “Yankee Doodle”. The post-revolutionary period was notable for advancing the music industry when the first professional music publishers migrated from Europe in the 1770’s, opening shops in Philadelphia, New York, Boston and Baltimore, bringing with them their European technology.
In the first quarter of the 19th century alone, 10,000 pieces of popular music were printed by publishers. One example was the international success “home sweet home” (1823).
Much of this music consisted of the thousands of songs written during the civil war, documenting feelings on both sides. The rallying cry of the south was “Dixie” (ironically written by a northerner), and “The Yellow Rose Of Texas”, which became a hit again in 1955.
After 1880, song promotion developed, or what early Tin Pan Alley publishers would soon call “plugging”.
Prior to the 1880’s, popular music publishing was a subsidiary function of music stores or “serious music” publishers.
The industry did not promote music or develop writers. Songs became popular with virtually no promotion. By and large, most minstrel troupes and singing personalities wrote their own music or had songs written to order. This was all changed by the young men entering the business from other fields, many from humble origins with no experience in publishing, but with energy and innovative ideas, all of which they were to focus on publishing the American popular song.
About the same time, a fellow named Frank Harding created a firm specializing in pop songs in NY’s Bowery. He encouraged writers to write for his company by paying them with several rounds of drinks, an early attempt at writer development! “It was no use giving them more than $10 at a time, he said. “A man could get damned drunk on $10.”
In pursuit of an audience, publishers devised numerous and extraordinary promotional practices. Aside from performing songs live for performers of the day, the salesman would sing and play in stores to sell his sheet music. (Louis & Jerry Kem team!) (Jerry Kem/Max Top Hat).
The first “payola” was through gifts to performers and placing “plants” in the audience who would jump up “spontaneously” and sing their publisher’s song.
By 1900, music publishers were making the move from their home on 14th St. to 28th St. (between 6th Ave and Broadway) “Tin Pan Alley” in order to be closer to the thriving entertainment center of the day.
Actually, both the sound and the amount of music produced by Tin Pan Alley were voluminous. The first decade of the 20th century boasted the highest production of popular music in history, some 25,000 songs annually.
Sheet music was king, both publishers and writers only source of income. The million seller was commonplace. During the decade, nearly 100 songs each sold over 1 million copies (songs like “Bird In A Gilded Cage”, and “Down By The Old Mill Stream”).
In 1893, “After the Ball” sold one million copies in America and, in the next ten years, went on to sell a total of ten million.
[edit] ASCAP
Despite the enactment of new U.S. copyright legislation, including the 1891 Chace Act which allowed for the international protection of copyrights, the provisions of the 1909 copyright act had been generally ignored. Music history was made in the U.S. when a group of noted songwriters including Victor Herbert braved foul New York City weather to attend a small meeting at a restaurant called Luchow’s in 1913. They were brought together by the novel ideal of creating a society to ensure writers and publishers received the recognition and revenue their works generated. At a second meeting on February 13, 1914, these visionaries, whose members included some of that era’s most active and talented songwriters, such as Irving Berlin, James Weldon Johnson, Jerome Kern and John Philip Sousa, began a tradition of outstanding public advocacy on behalf of songwriters that continues to this very day. ASCAP was formally organized to license the performances of songs.
Soon after ASCAP’s founding, Victor Herbert, brought a lawsuit against Shanley’s Restaurant that established the legal basis for songwriters to protect their ‘performing right’ in the music they created. In a legal battle that took two years to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, ASCAP finally prevailed in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Oliver Wendell Homes. “If music did not pay, it would be given up. If it pays, it pays out of the public’s pocket. Whether it pays or not, the purpose of employing it is profit, and that is enough.”
Despite this decision, by the end of the first year of its existence, ASCAP was licensing only 85 hotels in New York at an average fee of $8.23 a month. It took seven years (until 1921) before ASCAP’s income exceeded its legal and operating costs.
During this time, income of music publishers was derived almost entirely from the sales of printed music.
[edit] Technology
Technology has always had a large impact on the music publishing business. This is especially the case with the invention of the grammophone, which made music much more easily available and led to a transformation of the industry.
Thomas Edison invented recording in 1877 when he was able to play back his own reading of “Mary Had A Little Lamb” on a tin foil cylinder. Ten years later, a German, Emil Berliner, discovered that the disc was a far superior shape for sound reproduction and mass production.
In 1902, the American directors of the Gramophone Company engaged Enrico Caruso to record several arias. In one afternoon, Caruso made ten records for which he was paid $100. In the next 10 years, recordings were to make him a millionaire.
Curiously enough, popular music was slow to take advantage of the new recordings and in 1910, more than ¾ of the records sold were classical music.
But soon after, popular and light music assumed a stronger position and in the 1920’s, Paul Whiteman, Louis Armstrong and many others jumped on the never-to-be-ended bandwagon. The 20th century had arrived and so had the modern “music business”.
During the first quarter of the 20th century, sheet music was still king and publishers and composers depended primarily on the sale of sheet music for their revenues.
However, sheet sales declined while records were still providing inadequate income to compensate for this loss. This led to short lived but serious economic problems for some publishers. In the long run, of course, records only increased publishers’ receipts. In 1927, after the advent of The Jazz Singer (the first talkie) motion picture, the need for music led movie studios to buy music publishing companies, gaining both catalogues of music and experienced composers at the same time.
For example, in 1929, Warners paid 10 million dollars for Harms, Witmark and Remick; MGM bought Leo Feist, Robbins and some smaller companies; Paramount started Famous Music.
Once again, the music publisher benefited from new technology.
The post WW2 period resulted in such innovations as the jukebox and microgroove recording, which brought us the LP record. This added to the proliferation of broadcast stations
Later, television became a powerful tool in increasing the dissemination of music.
The 1980’s also saw the emergence of more new technology (satellite transmissions - CDs) and new outlets (cable).
Through the 90’s, these new formats (especially CDs) generated strong growth for the music publishing industry.
Technology and the Development of Copyright Protection and the Collection Societies Had it not been for the invention of music printing, and the efforts of the early printer-publishers, music would not have been distributed to the public. Similarly, through the efforts of the early music publishers, music easily crossed frontiers.
Lastly, due in large part to the publisher, the composer of music became not just a travelling minstrel, a theoretical pedagogue or theologian, but rather a man with a vocation and a profession.
Where other forms of entertainment may be harmed by new technical developments, music publishers, in their capacity of rights’ owners, always profit.
So, while the radio and film businesses were hurt by the introduction of television, music publishers benefited. Similarly, whereas the record industry may suffer threats in the future from video or cable or pay per play or the Internet, music publishers will continue to flourish since the new technology will offer additional sources of revenue.
Historically, the business has progressed from printed editions, to performing rights (1897), to mechanical rights (records, tapes, CD’s in 1971) to synchronization rights (film and advertising), to television, to video, to cable, cable radio and satellite, and now the web, DPDs, ringtones and subscription services.
And in each case, the preceding revenue source continues sometimes though in a varied and sometimes reduced manner.
Music publishing benefits from the fact that it is not reliant upon any one sector of the entertainment industry. From a technology point of view, it is far from neutral – any delivery system will work.
[edit] Copyright issues
The development of what can broadly be described as “the music biz” would not have led to a coherent and profitable industry had it not been for two other factors which paralleled the technological and musical developments.
One was the theory of copyright and the laws which supported it.
The second was the emergence of the concept of the performing right under copyright and the birth of the performing rights societies.
It was through these two evolutionary processes that publishing was transformed from a simple sale of individual music sheets to a “metier” which is .
It is copyright alone that makes music publishing a business, for without it there is no legal protection against unrestricted and uncompensated use of the property of the publisher.
The use of the word “copyright” frequently confuses; it may appear at first to denote a single legal right or interest, as for example ownership in land or other forms of property more generally understood.
In many respects, a “copyright” is similar to an interest in land; both are proprietary rights, can be bought and sold, mortgaged or dealt with in any number of ways.
However, a “copyright” is in fact a “bundle of rights” vested in an “author”, each of which can be independently sold, assigned or licensed.
Initially, the only right defined was the right to prevent unauthorized printed copies of a work.
It is the negative aspect of these rights which gives value to copyright, unlike other forms of proprietary right, an author is given the right to prevent any other person from doing certain restricted acts without his permission and is thereby enabled to set conditions for granting such permission, in particular, the payment of fees. The conceptual nature of these rights means that copyright, along with patent and trademark rights, are often collectively referred to as “intellectual property rights”.
Today, the duration of copyright protection is limited by law. In general, the period of protection is the life of the creator plus 70 years.
Most civilized countries, having promulgated copyright laws, are party to various international conventions – the principal one being the Berne Convention (1886, 1908, 1928). As of now, the Convention had been signed by more than 76 countries.
The basic principle of the Convention is that all authors of works published in a contracting state must be granted the same protection as citizens of other states without further formalities.
Other principal conventions include the Universal Copyright Convention (1952) and the Rome Convention (1961) which extended protection to performers and records.
