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Commercial recordings - CDs, LPs - are familiar objects. However, discussion about them has often attempted to conceal the fact that, as communicating objects, recordings pose special problems due to the fact that they unite text, image, and sound in a material commodity. This thesis examines the role of the visual in the production, circulation and use of recordings. The album cover is the primary category of study, with an emphasis on its functioning in relation to the recording as a sonic and material commodity. The label ECM, a German company which has been producing recordings since 1969, provides the main focus in this analysis. The basis of this investigation lies in the questioning of the assumptions and categories that have historically guided the activity of cover design and the discourse about it. Traditionally, recordings have been understandably seen primarily as sound-carriers; their visual aspects, even when celebrated, are most often relegated to a peripheral status, despite the fact that in certain contexts the importance of the visual can overwhelm that of sound. The usual hierarchical opposition between these elements is here questioned through an examination of both the marketing of recordings and their circulation and use. ECM provides a pertinent case through which such questions can be elaborated. Its visual marketing strategies can be characterised in terms of a desire for difference. ECM's attempt to set itself apart has resulted in a "look" which rejects many conventions. It has also resulted in a complex, conceptual group of visual strategies. In its particular use of landscape photography, blank space, and gestural markings, ECM constructs ideas of space which relate to the potential for performativity and creativity. Through the combination of these strategies, the label deemphasises creative personality of the musical performer and emphasises the space occupied by the looker/listener. In doing this, it also questions the traditional boundaries between music and the visual. ECM's covers cause these categories to become indistinct and allow new conceptions of the recording as a material commodity to emerge. One effect of this is a construction of the apprehender's subjectivity that fails to fit within the marketplace's traditional categories. The thesis considers how the visual has been implicated in more concrete processes such as the negotiation of taste and practices of consumption and use. The niche that ECM attempts to carve out for itself is considered in relation to the tension in the marketplace between the desire for distinction and the recording as a massproduced commodity. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

The original works of copyright holders included tangible creations, as music written on a page, thereby, extending copyright protection to songwriters and music publishers. Until 1995, absent from U.S. copyright law was protection for copyright owners of intangible sound recordings. the Performance Rights Act (PRA) seeks to amend the US copyright law in order to grant copyright holders of sound recordings the right to performance royalties from terrestrial broadcast radio. If passed, the legislation would be unprecedented in the United States. the PRA has implications for broadcast radio, record labels, and performing artists. This study includes historical and legal perspective of previous attempts at legislation of this nature and predicts outcomes of current legislation.

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Not long after the invention of sound recording technology, two phrases arose to describe a host of relationships to this new era of sound: high fidelity and low fidelity. The idea of fidelity when applied to sound was used to describe the accuracy of reproduction – how much did a sound reproduced by phonograph technology sound like the original? While the idea of fidelity continues to serve the function as a way to measure the quality of sound recording, through technical measurements of frequency response, signal-to-noise ratios, and the ability to reproduce extremes of quietude and loudness, fidelity also functions in ideologies of listening. High fidelity ideology, in its never-ending quest for perfect fidelity, insists upon hearing musical records as realistic recordings of original events, obscuring how the majority of musical recordings are assembled in the studio by an unheard engineer. Beyond music, high fidelity ideology insists that sounds can and, indeed, must be heard in certain ways. Low fidelity represents that which is left in high fidelity’s wake: outdated technology, poor sound quality, and the obvious intrusion of the process of recording into the media. What develops is a low fidelity mode of listening that does not listen for the perfect reproduction of an originary event or an imagined ideal. This project examines how experimental Black authors from the 1960s to the 1990s engaged with low fidelity sound recording technology in prose and poetry. The authors and works examined include: Amiri Baraka’s The Dead Lecturer (1964) and The System of Dante’s Hell (1965); Fran Ross’s Oreo (1974); Nathaniel Mackey’s Bedouin Hornbook (1986); and Erna Brodber’s Louisiana (1994). The chapters examine how these authors look to sound technologies such as monophonic LPs, tape editing decks in recording studios, cassettes, and early reel-to-reel tape recorders as a grounding for the experimental forms of the texts and their approach to creating literary voice. I conclude that by approaching these texts by close reading through the history of the media presented in each chapter that we can develop a form of low fidelity reading that offers a new approach to the interstices between sound and text.

The use of new media technology which refers to digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies such as the Internet, mobile devices, gaming, and social networks, has come to define the music industry today, and it is this technology that has empowered independent artists in such a way that they are now free to pursue heights of success previously only available to major label artists. New media technology has affected the traditional business models of major labels, it has resulted in gross decline in recording costs, given birth to new channels of music marketing, and business models, and has created a new music clientele that requires instant gratification, personalization, and connectivity. In the face of such change, independent artists have been empowered and can access opportunities to distribute music independently, market and promote music effectively to niche markets, secure publishing deals, while building their own community of dedicated fans. / by Simone K. Harris. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

There is a long history of collaboration between private collectors and collecting institutions. Literature that discusses collaboration between these two groups typically focuses on the donation or sale of a private collection to an institution. Existing research focuses less often on the collaborative practices these two groups use to create, preserve, and access their recording collections. Furthermore, there is no scholarly work that aggregates known public-private collaborative practices. As a result, these additional practices are consistently underdeveloped and underutilized. For the first time, this thesis compiles a list of collaborative practices employed by private collectors and collecting institutions. Data was gathered through a literature review and a series of semi-structured interviews with private collectors and information professionals working with recorded sound collections. The constant comparative method of qualitative analysis was used to analyze the data. This thesis finds and discusses twelve collaborative practices employed by private collectors and information professionals. This study also discusses factors that encourage and discourage the use of these collaborative practices, the potential for their continued use, and ways in which future studies can extend the exploratory research of this study. This study’s findings contribute to the efforts of both private collectors and collecting institutions to preserve and provide access to the vast body of sound recordings documenting the multitude of historic and cultural perspectives necessary for scholarly and personal research. / text

The Napster case has created a frenzy of controversy and confusion. The Peer to Peer technology developed by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, has forced the courts, the legislature, corporations, and individuals to reconsider the use of the Internet. Peer to peer networks create new challenges for the application of copyright law. However, these challenges are not that different from those which copyright law has evolved to accommodate in the past. Copyright law is intended to balance the interests of the creators and the public to promote the progress of science and useful arts. The premise behind copyright protection is to ensure that people continue creating, and that the public continues to enjoy those creations, through the mechanism of rewarding the creators with a temporary monopoly over their works. This balance of interests is fundamental to the interpretation of copyright law by the United States Congress and the Courts. This thesis focuses on the application and interpretation of copyright law through a case study of the law in the United States, in particular the Napster case. Although it now appears that the Internet can be subject to some form of regulation with the aid of technological innovation to enforce the regulation, the Courts in the Napster case have misinterpreted the previous judicial consideration attributed to copyright law. In essence, the fundamental principle of the balancing of interests has been lost. We are now left with an unequal balance in favor of large media conglomerates. It can be argued that the media conglomerates have used Napster as an example of their power to control the technology of peer to peer networking as a model of distribution. Napster demonstrates that peer to peer is an effective way of sharing information with an extremely large amount of people. This has the music industry scared, resulting in their legal battle to shut down the Napster technology. The claims of copyright misuse raise awareness of the need for regulation and a reassessment of copyright application in a digital age. There is a need for regulation. However, any attempts at further application of law and regulation to the Internet concerning copyright protection should consider the intent of the constitutional founders of the United States -- copyright law is intended to protect the interests of both the artists, and the public.

The crux of the research problem for this study pertains to the fact that, as the world moves towards a digital age, it is imperative that we gain insight into the current copyright laws which govern the transferring of music from the old analogue form to the new digital formats. In terms of the research problem, this study explores the South African Copyright Act No. 98 of 1978 as it pertains to the transferring of sound recordings from analogue to digital format. The study also examined digital copyright laws for sound recordings in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia as well as major copyright conventions and treaties as these international copyright laws impact on the South African situation, especially in terms of reciprocity. Furthermore, the study addressed the issue of balancing the rights between copyright holders and the public good in the preservation and dissemination of knowledge in the digital age. The study employed methodological triangulation which included a literature search, a questionnaire and informal interviews. The population constituted 16 music librarians and two legal librarians who were surveyed. Quantitative and qualitative techniques were employed. Considering the size of the population (18) the results of a self-administered questionnaire were analysed using a calculator. Data collected for the informal interviews was analysed qualitatively. The study revealed that music librarians in South Africa are not well-versed in South African copyright law, especially as it applies to sound recordings. Guidelines, based on the South African Copyright Act No. 98 of 1978, and specifically for South African music librarians, have been formulated concerning both print and the actual sound recordings. It is important for the music librarian to take note that the composition of songs in a sound recording has an individual copyright that is separate from the copyright of the sound recording. Further copyrights can also exist in, for example, the sleeve of an album. It is anticipated that the guidelines will give clarity to music librarians on South African digital copyright legislation with regard to sound recordings. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009.