I never really considered Beethoven as a sort of a Business man/ Entrepenuer. I was just too focused on his musical genius side to really sit back and analyze the business framework of his entire musical career. But as Mr. Bowen sheds light on the similarities it all starts to make a little more sense. We tend to look over the primitave years of how the music business evolved from making to sound to turning it into a musical written piece to selling printed versions of the musical piece. How that changed the face of the music industry is what people tend to overlook.
Bowmen starts by mentioning how music/sound began people just pick up rocks and made sound with it. As time progressed man eventually turned the idea of picking up rocks to make sound to creating wonderful instruments that created new sound. In the 18th century people began to play very expensive and complicated instruments and in order to hear that kind of music you didn't have it at the convenience of your own home like a stereo or mobile iPod. You had to go to a specific location that held concerts were you could hear the music. Essentially you had to get out of the house of you wanted to hear the music you were interested in live. As a result of having to go and see your favorite music live, this created social interaction. Mr. Bowmen explains that there were two what he calls disruptions which were Music Print and the creation of the piano. As a result of these two "disruptions" it Beethoven starts to create a market. Music begins to be massed produced and is readily available for a fan or aspiring musician to learn quality music by obtaining a copy of the work and learning the piece in the their home if they have a piano to play on. Also because Music is being printed we've created "cheap music." You no longer have to travel far and wide just to hear you music live but now you can obtain their printed works and try to learn them yourself. Beethoven realized that there was market for him in this industry to sell and print sheet music where it can be mass produced and everyone could have equal opportunity to obtain. As time progressed to 100 years later, we get the recorder, piano player, and later the radio. Once the radio came to existence it created less social activity and more of a personalized secluded music listening experience. We began to have walk-mans and records and all that developed in to the mp3s, Ipods and digital files. People no longer have to leave their home to seek the music that yurned for. You have music at the push of a button. Mr. Bowmen found commonalities between Beethoven and Bill Gates as software designers. They both live in a time where hardware is changing rapidly. Mr. Bowmen mentions that in 1803 a french Piano maker creates a piano for Beethoven with more notes and Beethoven's first reaction to the new piano is to create a new sonata incorporating those new notes. Something other famous composers like Chopin and Bach hadn't gotten their hands on yet. Beethoven in a sence has the same relationship with his audience as bill gates does. Beethoven writes more as he gets new hardware. Even though Beethoven wrote piano sonatas, he delays so that they don't use the extra notes in a sense staying up to date with the times but already a step ahead for the next pending release. He limits himself to the amount of keys on those pianos. He redefined the product as we know it today.
Mr. Bowmen mentions some of the changes we began to see in the evolution of the Music Industry:
Division of Labor.
Changed Expectations of Quality.
Less Social Interaction.
New Personalized Experience
More Consumer choice
Larger Global Pyramids
The music industry is every growing and constantly evolving. Beethoven paved the way for the music industry in a huge way and we have him to thank for that. He would be proud and in aww of how far the evolution of music print has come and where it has led to from the first music print he had done. I found this video to be very intriguing and it behooves me to want to research more about the history of the music industry and how music was marketed and promoted during their time as artists.
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