STEVE INSKEEP, BYLINE: We’re reporting on the primary quarter of our century. These 25 years present how our world has modified and provides us clues to the place we’re going. In at this time’s installment, we think about 1 / 4 century of music. The world has modified much more than it did within the first quarter of the twentieth century…
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NOBODY KNOWS YOU WHEN YOU’RE DOWN AND OUT”)
BESSIE SMITH: (Singing) I imply if you down and out.
INSKEEP: …When music like this was standard. Jazz and blues unfold by means of know-how – flat disc information. Expertise from the early 1900s finally modified the music itself. New, extra delicate microphones made it doable for musicians to sing to their audiences in a extra intimate means.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IT’S EASY TO REMEMBER”)
BING CROSBY: (Singing) You got here to me from out of nowhere.
INSKEEP: Bing Crosby wrote these improvements far into the century, whereas jazz and blues impressed music that lasted even longer.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SAY MY NAME”)
DESTINY’S CHILD: (Singing) Say my title, say my title when nobody is round you…
INSKEEP: In our quarter century, know-how once more is altering music. Within the 12 months 2000, CDs dominated the earth.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BYE BYE BYE”)
NSYNC: (Singing) But it surely ain’t no lie, child, bye, bye, bye. Bye-bye.
INSKEEP: NSYNC bought 2.4 million copies of “No Strings Connected” throughout its first week, and that was a document.
ANN POWERS, BYLINE: However then piracy occurred.
INSKEEP: NPR Music’s Ann Powers is our information to this quarter century.
POWERS: I imply, this was younger tech masters determining easy methods to share music throughout the brand new expanse of our on-line world.
INSKEEP: In 2000, web file sharing was already inflicting CDs to go…
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “BYE BYE BYE”)
NSYNC: Bye, bye, bye. Bye-bye.
INSKEEP: Napster launched about 9 months earlier than that NSYNC album, and others adopted. NPR talked with two College of Virginia college students again in 2000.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: I used to spend some huge cash on CDs and stuff, and now it is simply a lot simpler to only go on, like, these Napster issues. Takes, like, 10 seconds per music.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: I am on-line proper now, and there are 259,025 separate songs, all of that are on-line and accessible by me.
INSKEEP: Which meant 259,025 separate songs for which artists and document firms weren’t being paid.
POWERS: It was an actual shock. I imply, the gates have been falling in all places, and followers have been taking management.
INSKEEP: Labels have been freaking out. Complete document retailer chains went out of enterprise.
POWERS: This was as huge a change as when the recorded music period started 100 years earlier than. What most of us followers did not know was what the labels have been already planning – proper? – which was to determine a technique to monetize and, frankly, corporatize this new wild west.
INSKEEP: First by suing Napster out of existence after which by supporting music streaming. Spotify got here out of Europe in 2006, reaching the U.S. in 2011.
POWERS: Daniel Ek, the founding father of Spotify. He is Swedish. Sweden was, like, the wildest wild west for piracy.
INSKEEP: Who knew?
POWERS: Completely. And this was presupposed to be like, hey, let’s all put our stuff on the identical platform. Make it straightforward for followers. And as they have been in a position to make these offers with the labels, that they had the music everybody wished.
INSKEEP: For many who do not use it, Spotify is sort of a customized radio. The document labels receives a commission, and also you decide the music. Ultimately, you decide completely different music as a result of the tech makes it doable. I am enthusiastic about the way in which that I take advantage of my telephone for music. I will get a music in my head, and I will hearken to it 50 occasions.
POWERS: Proper. Certain.
INSKEEP: No downside.
POWERS: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: I may additionally go – an outdated music comes into my head. “Snowbird.”
POWERS: Sure.
INSKEEP: (Singing) Unfold your tiny wings and fly away.
POWERS: (Laughter).
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SNOWBIRD”)
ANNE MURRAY: (Singing) And take the snow again with you the place it got here from on that day.
POWERS: Anne Murray, proper?
INSKEEP: Yeah. Nicely, at first, I did not know the title, however I discovered the music. I discovered that was the artist that had the hit. After which I began discovering all the opposite variations of this music.
POWERS: Proper.
INSKEEP: Elvis Presley sang that music.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SNOWBIRD”)
ELVIS PRESLEY: (Singing) The breeze alongside the river appears to say…
INSKEEP: Loretta Lynn.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “SNOWBIRD”)
LORETTA LYNN: (Singing) That he’ll solely break my coronary heart once more ought to I determine to remain.
INSKEEP: I will find yourself having this expertise of music that I had no thought I used to be searching for till I began searching for it.
POWERS: Nicely, because of this we love streaming, frankly. It feels so pure. It feels natural. It strikes on the pace of thought. However there are penalties. There’s been very main penalties for artists. The rise of streaming has actually modified the economics of the music business in ways in which haven’t benefited most artists.
INSKEEP: Nicely, let me perceive that as a result of I’d assume that the one that’s not tremendous well-known would profit from streaming as a result of no matter their viewers is, they’ll maximize it by means of streaming. If there’s solely 10,000 individuals on this planet who may like their music, they’ll discover it on streaming. Why is not that not good for them?
POWERS: Nicely, that is the paradox, proper? We dwell in a time when it’s far simpler to turn out to be a, I suppose, quote-unquote, “skilled musician,” or turn out to be a musician with the general public, as an instance…
INSKEEP: Yeah.
POWERS: …Than ever earlier than. However fewer and fewer individuals can maintain themselves.
INSKEEP: Wow.
POWERS: As a result of music has been devalued, frankly. If every little thing feels free, we anticipate issues to be free. When the key labels negotiated offers with the platforms, the artist was unnoticed within the chilly.
INSKEEP: And if know-how made it arduous to succeed, it additionally decided who did succeed. Algorithms and playlists more and more select music for individuals who stream it, and so they typically create hits.
POWERS: So a music like “Despacito,” or “Previous City Highway” by Lil Nas X.
INSKEEP: Ah.
POWERS: Which is a complete streaming phenomenon. You already know, it was on so many playlists that it simply by no means went away.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “OLD TOWN ROAD”)
LIL NAS X: (Singing) I’ll take my horse to the outdated city street. I’ll…
INSKEEP: Is it doable we’re heading to that second when individuals activate a specific stream that is delivered to them by algorithm, and the algorithm begins sending them fairly serviceable, adequate music that is produced by AI?
POWERS: Sure.
INSKEEP: And no human beings have been concerned in it in any respect?
POWERS: It is already occurring.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MIKU”)
AI-GENERATED VOICE: (As Hatsune Miku, singing) Miku, Miku. You may name me Miku.
INSKEEP: This can be a Vocaloid, a voice completely AI-generated. She’s obtained a reputation, Hatsune Miku. You may see an image of her rendered as an anime character, however she does not exist. Singing with out the singer. One in every of my children listens.
POWERS: Individuals are so adaptable, simply as nobody thought on the daybreak of the recording business that, , listening to a voice that was pressed onto a slab of wax could possibly be nearly as good as listening to somebody sing in individual or play the piano in individual. Look how we tailored to that. Bing Crosby obtained his mouth close to a microphone, and the world swooned. So that is what we do. We adapt to know-how.
INSKEEP: Ann Powers. This has been great. Thanks a lot.
POWERS: Thanks a lot, Steve.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “MIKU”)
AI-GENERATED VOICE: (As Hatsune Miku, singing) Miku, Miku, (vocalizing). I am considering Miku…
INSKEEP: We’re telling the historical past of the primary quarter of our century. We have up to now heard of area journey and music, and we’ve extra to come back.
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