Sound Recording in Canada, not regulated by the Government
Introduction
Sound recording was initially invented in 1857 by Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville. The development of sound recording has gone through multiple stages to become what it is today. From phonographs to magnetic tapes and further developments, sound recording has been used within the music industry for ages. The government does not regulate the process of sound recording, however conflicts regarding copyright infringements are present.
Brief History
An academic article written by Linda M. Fidler and William L. Schurk titled “Sound Recording Archives” discusses the history of sound recording. During the 1960, the preservation of sound recording “saw major changes in the
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As sound recording is intangible, it is hard to use in the same way as a tangible item such as a novel, when managing regulations and privacy concerns. There have been a variety of issues to determine who actually owns the sound that has been created. It could be the artist, producer, or a sound engineer who has worked on that particular sound. By illegally downloading or sharing a sound recording, an individual is harming the original creator. Video recordings with sound are greatly present in concerts and different musical events. This process is not regulated, however the recording may only be used for personal usage and not aimed towards creating a profit, which on the other hand is illegal. The result can be seen within Alex Cummings book titled “Democracy of Sound”. Cummings argues “Such moral convictions may help to explain the hard shift toward stronger copyright laws in America during the last four years” (Cummings 2). As mentioned earlier, personalized usage of such recordings is acceptable, but distribution of the material is not. The Canadian government has defined sound recording as “musical work” and it states, “musical work means any work of music or musical composition, with or without words, and includes any compilation thereof” (Copyright Act). “Copyright, which recognizes and protects artists’ creations as ‘intellectual property’, will be a …show more content…
Broadcasting is “$14 billion industry that includes radio and television, as well as the distribution services of cable, satellite, and, increasingly the Internet and mobile devices” (Gasher, Skinner, Lorimer 218). The Canadian government regulates broadcasting because “it serves national, cultural, and political goals” (Gasher, Skinner, Lorimer 219). The reason for comparing regulations between sound recording and broadcasting is the fact that a great proportion of radio broadcasting is recorded music. “There is a significant symbiosis between radio broadcast policy and policies designed to encourage the production and dissemination of Canadian music” (Gasher, Skinenr, Lorimer 225). Radio broadcasters are required to have a license in order to broadcast music through their channel. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is in charge of issuing these licenses to broadcasters. “Today, the CRTC’s duties in the broadcasting field include: issuing and renewing licenses, up to a maximum of seven years, modifying existing license conditions, and suspending or revoking licenses” (Gasher, Skinner, Lorimer 221). It is evident that the use of sound recordings within the field of broadcasting is strictly regulated. This further develops an idea that the sound recording industry will become regulated within the future, as it is present in such a vast
The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a non-profit organization that represents the Canadian performing rights of millions of music creators and publishers all over the world. Its predecessors have been in Canada since 1925 but was officially founded in 1990. In this paper, you will learn about SOCAN and how it operates, their goal and purpose, and how to become a member and how it will benefit you and even the rest of Canada. Eric Baptiste (CEO of SOCAN) is one of the most influential leaders in the music industry. With all his experience in the music industry it is no wonder why the organization has grown its membership base and increased the number of organizations licensed to use music to record-high
After a couple of “failed” attempts of making a device that could be used for mass sharing of music in the late 1800s, an immigrant from Germany had finally come up with an idea that would change everything. Chichester Bell (Alexander Graham Bell's cousin) and Thomas Edison’s idea to record sounds on round cylinders was a good idea except for the sound quality and general effort that was required to make and replicate sound. The Phonograph was one of the earliest attempts at recording devices. Thomas A. Edison wanted to create this device in order to assist with business interactions. He originally used foil to record sounds, but this wasn't the best medium. You could only play sounds once and the quality wasn’t the greatest. This is when wax cylinders came into play. It was eventually decided that the wax cylinder wasn't strong enough to record something permanently. Next followed the graphophone. This invention by Bell fixed the replay problem, but mass production of music would’ve been impossible because of the sheer amount of work involved in recording each cylinder separately (Bells).
Pre-1972 sound recordings are considered classic and legendary, which should be respected and protected. However, digital (terrestrial) radio companies continue to exploit it as public domain and do not feel obligated to pay out royalties to its copyright owner(s). Under the Copyright Act 1909, all sound recordings are protected by state law, but after the Copyright Act of 1972, sound recordings created after February of 1972 were federally protected (Brook 126). This lead to the question: What about the federal protection of sound recordings created prior to the Copyright Act of 1972? Pre-1972 sound recordings are not federally protected, meaning copyright owners are exempted from receiving the same rights as post-1972 copyright owners. Since
Multitrack recorders were originally developed in the early 1950s in Germany. The initial principle of multitracks was to divide a tape in two parts and record different sounds onto each and play them back concurrently. The fact that both tracks would be on the same tape would mean they would be synchronised exactly. In classical music recordings of the 1950s, the early two track machines were first used and recorded in stereo. Two different mics would be used and these signals would be recorded simultaneously. Pop and jazz recordings however, remained in mono until the mid sixties. The first three track recorder is attributed to Les Paul who
After Edison, people went crazy on the idea of audio. In 1913 they were able to record film and audio to create movies. Recording engineers in specific have been important in the United States since the 1940’s. Tom Dawd, an early recording engineer, was very successful in his job. He started recording in the 1940’s and proceeded to do so until the beginning of the 21st century. Tom Dawd passed away in 2002, but his memories still live on in the documentary about him entitled, Tom Dawd and The Language of
Over the years, music has become portable, starting with the transistor to a set of headphones. Technology has allowed us to create a diverse musical culture. Music will always have an effect on one’s culture, and it has definitely mad a huge impact on the use of technology. Cultural diversity is about bringing people closer together though the World Wide Web. Many music publishers are the key to cultural diversity when it comes to publishing all genres. They will increasingly continue to play a part in promoting diversity by bringing music of all kinds and forms to the music market. The way we access and listen to music has changed a lot in the music industry. For some, it may seem easier to download your favorite song from your favorite artist, but there are rules to the file-sharing and downloading of music. Before there was file-sharing, people would gather in concert halls for impressive music from some of the best known composers of all time. Today, there has been an abundance of ways to access and listen to music, in writing this paper, my goal is to discuss copyright laws, file-sharing, and the progression of how we access music.
Throughout the years, time and time again in the range from quality to even the format of how the sound was projected, recorded and shown was developmental change for audio technology. In 1890 with the help of redefined tinfoil cylinder we saw the form “The first juke box” ( Schoenherr, 2005) which was coined operated phonograph, which was the first time audio record through the form of music making an impact on people’s lives. By 1893, the trend of audio recording not only slowly in developing of itself, but in the formatting of it as well, with in this year span it jump from the original cylinder to rubber discs, which marked the beginning of the shift to the record format. Now fast forward to 1906, by this time the Velvet-Tone was announced by Columbia, as a better format for audio recording of the reason of “less surface noise” (Schoenherr, 2005) than the tradition rubber record, it would become the beginning stages of what lead to the modern records that we have come to
One aspect that was provided to the public through inventions and developments in music technology was a major convenience. They no loner needed to leave the comfort of their home to spend money on a live performance. One particular invention that pushed this development was the radio. This invention was the first known device to allow mass communication; not only nationally, but internationally as well (Wyman). As early as the 1800’s, multiple people began experimenting with wireless signals and communication (CITE). In 1910, this wireless system developed to be referred to as the name “radio”(CITE). However, it wasn’t until 1920 that the first radio station in the US arose (CITE). The radio was mainly used for news at first; but within the next couple of years as more radio stations popped up, music became prominent on the radio.
Music permeates our day to day lives. From our iPods and iPads, to elevators and trains, to the more obvious venues such as radio stations and bars, music has so seeped into the consciousness of contemporary society that it has become hard to imagine a life without it. As with any other crucial element in society, however, music in modern civilization has also been regulated by the long arm of the law. So much so that conflicts and controversies so often arise within the legal dimension of musical endeavor. In recent memory, much of the headlines in popular magazines have been devoted to these controversies. From Taylor Swift to
“Censorship, like charity should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there,” is a quote by Clare Boothe Luce (Fitzhenry, 84). Some parents are against the censorship of music. They believe that they should raise their kids, not some politicians who believe one nasty word will change a whole child’s future.
It wasn’t until the 1900’s, however, that the current way of storing and playing back music – with digital audio – became a thing (Millard 1995). As far as digital audio is concerned, the first method of digitally representing analog vocal or audio signals was developed all the way back in 1937. Pulse-code modulation, as it was called, pioneered digital audio recording that is used to this day (Reeves 1942; Black and Edson 1947). The way it works is like this: a recording of an analog signal (such as the auditory waveforms produced by a phonautograph or gramophone) can be sampled by a computer algorithm; the algorithm assigns arbitrary binary numbers (binary meaning zeroes and ones) to each sample measurement of the analog waveform and collects them all as a function of time. This process of sampling, called digital modulation, has two crucial parameters: sampling rate, or how many samples of the audio waveform are taken per second, and bit depth, or quantity of possible digital values (Techopedia 2016). To make this easier to understand, consider the following graph (“File:Pcm.svg,” Wikimedia
The development of relatively inexpensive reproduction of music via a succession of formats including vinyl records, compact cassettes, compact discs (introduced in 1983) and, by the mid-1990s, digital audio recordings, and the transmission or broadcast of audio recordings of music performances on radio, of video recordings or live performances on television, and by the 1990s, of audio and video recordings via the Internet, using file sharing of digital audio recordings, gave individuals from a wide range of socioeconomic classes access to a diverse selection of high-quality music performances by artists from around the world.[citation needed] The introduction of multitrack recording in 1955 and the use of mixing had a major influence on pop and rock music, because it enabled record producers to mix and overdub many layers of instrument tracks and vocals, creating new sounds that would not be possible in a live performance.[1] The development of sound recording and audio engineering technologies and the ability to edit these recordings gave rise to new subgenres of classical music, including the Musique concrète (1949) and acousmatic[2](1955) schools of electronic composition. In the 1970s, African-American hip hop musicians began to use the record
All can use the prestigious person’s talks for their purpose and this can be possible only because of tape recorder. The store data of computer and measurement can be done in the instruments of scientific research and medical research. To preserve and reproduce the various forms of information tape recorder can be helpful. The tape recorder records and reproduces sound by keeping electrical signals as magnetic patterns on a plastic tape coated with
In 1950, the international Federal Phonographic Industry, European Broadcasting Union and the International Federation of Musicians represented the three interests. These finally gave birth to the Rome Convention. Copyright is protected in different Articles of the Convention. Just to highlight one of them, Article 7 provides that performers are to be given rights that prevent broadcasters from communicating the information to the public. This is congruent with the ethical requirements of sharing music. It also prevents performance, fixation and reproduction without their consent. These provisions, among others, apply to music recordings and performances in Canada by being a member of the convention. In most cases, we find that ethical expectation in the way music is shared in Canada is also provided in statutes, boards, and treaties. With this, the ethical channels needed in sharing music may not have been expressed by are implied in the underlying legalities (Freeman, 2015). The next section addresses Immanuel Kant’s moral value of intellectual property.
production. The goal of getting a good sound is no different now than it was when the first recordings