[78-L] fwd: Phonographic Record Industry - Inquiry

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kristjan Saag" <saag at telia.com>
> I'd recommend Louis Barfe's "Where have all the good times gone - the rise
> and fall of the record industry" (Atlantic Books, London 2004) which gives 
> a
> very good insight in the record business, from the early years on. A lot 
> of
> research behind it, including how the big companies cooperated to keep the
> small ones out (when they didn't fight each other); sales figures, 
> catalogue
> figures are given here and there.
> In German there is "Knaurs Weltgeschichte der Schallplatte" by Curt Reiss,
> which tells Gelatt's story from a European angle, but with many US details
> as well, including sales figures.
>
Actually, it's a bit more complicated than that...! Emile Berliner 
effectively
invented the lateral-cut disc record...but around 1899 got into a legal
battle with his erstwhile Sales Manager; as a result, he moved his business
to Montreal (having benn born in Alsace-Lorraine, he probably also
preferred the French-language community as well...?).

Eldridge Johnson, who had been supplying Berliner with spring motors,
took over control of his "gramophone" business...eventually renaming it
"Victor." Victor started out legally battling Columbia...eventually taking
over the company the latter firm was using as their "presser"...but the\
two firms quickly figured out that there would be no "winner" in an
extended legal battle over patents! Each one could have forced the
other out of the record business...but, as well, neither firm owned ALL
the patents, so there would have been two losers and no winner.

Around 1903 or so, new companies entered the lateral-cut record
business...but the Victor/Columbia "alliance" was able to force them
all out of the business due to patent infringement. In fact, the only
company that would prove impossible to "kill" was Emerson, who
used a system of "universal" (45-degree) cutting, which allowed their
records to play equally well (or poorly?!) on both vertical and
lateral machines...?!

Finally, in 1919, the legal battling "backfired," as the courts held that
the relevant patents (from 1902) had expired, meaning that ANYBODY
could (and DID) manufacture lateral-cut discs...

...stevenc