Piracy reduces sales 50% and threatens Music Industry

New York Times Article from 1897 (112 years old)

[Demaestro]

[bestactever.com...]

Source: New York Times

.... flooding the country with spurious editions of the latest popular songs. They use the MAILS to reach purchasers...

This article is about the sale of sheet music that people could order from an ad in a newspaper.

Strange how history repeats itself. In the article if you substitute the word "mails" with "bit-torrent" and "newspapers" with "websites".. then this article is as relevant today as it was 112 years ago when it was written.

[jdMorgan]

Yes, the 1897 sheet music sales slump was caused by the easy availability of MP3s -- That is, M + P^3 (plural), which stood for "Mule-Powered Printing Presses," and the more-portable "upright" piano design.

Jim

[Demaestro]

lol jim

At least we don't have to worry about republishing the article seeing as it's copyright has expired.

[caribguy]

T.B. Harms, later to become Warner Chappell music. I guess they didn't hurt too badly after all...

In 1928 Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. acquired M. Witmark & Sons, and in 1929 it purchased Remick Music Corporation. In 1929 Max and Louis Dreyfus sold out their holdings in Harms, Inc. to Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. for $11,000,000.

[Gibble]

100 years later, and they still haven't learned.