Cut to 1983, and there were murmurings in the music industry. The balance was shifting. Prior to this time there was a well respected formula, and I present it here: 

 

Part One 

Band forms. Band gets good. Band attracts a following. Band plays larger and larger venues until they reach a venue that an A&R (Artiste and Repertoire) man might actually visit. Band gets signed to label by said A&R man. Band gets giddy when presented with a contract (actually just a loan). Band books into a recording studio and, hopefully, is so inspired as to create a masterpiece that goes some way to pay off the loan (contract). 

 

Part Two 

Band, whilst enjoying the success of their newly pressed ‘masterpiece’ either: 

a) want some ‘in-person’ adulation from the fans, or 

b) the record company don’t think record sales are high enough, therefore some ‘in-person’ promotion is in order 

 

Either way, a tour is arranged. Now, you have to remember that, in the 1970s, record companies make their money from sales of records. They generally lost money on tours, and they would only support a tour if they really believed in the recordings that had been made in the hope of expanding record sales by putting the band on show. 

 

But the equilibrium of the universe was about to be upset. 

I seem to recall being told about a fire that had wiped out much of the magnetic tape stock of a major manufacturer in Japan. This struck panic into the hearts of studio executives as they are, by nature, a stingy lot, and this surely meant that the cost of recording was about to sky-rocket. 

Add to this the fact that a lot of very clever people in computing had been tirelessly working for decades on ‘tapeless’ recording and, just at that time, computer memory had expanded enough for it to go beyond simple four-second orchestral samples (and kicked off a whole genre of music, Hip-Hop) and into something that could, with just a little bit of focus, be developed into a useful recording medium, and you had the conditions necessary to upset the music business for ever. 

 

In the late 70s, musicians in the UK would, almost to a man (or woman) have a sticker issued by the Musician’s Union on their instrument cases saying “Home Taping is Killing Music”. By the early 80s this had changed to “Home Taping is Skill in Music”. It was pronounced the same way, but nothing was really the same…