Music History Events: Music Industry
February 9, 2022 Snoop Dogg buys Death Row Records, the label he started with. He plans to take the label into the metaverse and issue non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
August 19, 2013 The phrase "bro-country" appears for the first time, used by Jody Rosen in a New York magazine story to describe the Florida Georgia Line song "Cruise." Rosen crowns Luke Bryan king of the genre, which he describes as "music by and of the tatted, gym-toned, party-hearty young American white dude."
December 6, 2012 Metallica end their streaming holdout, allowing their music on Spotify for the first time.
February 4, 2008 With digital delivery transforming the industry, some record companies package releases with additional goodies. The Virgin-owned Astralwerks label issues Laura Marling's debut album, Alas, I Cannot Swim, in what they call a "songbox" format, which includes a concert ticket and souvenirs representing each song along with the CD.
September 14, 2005 Tim Foreman, bassist of Switchfoot, speaks out against Copy Protection that Sony have placed on the band's album Nothing Is Sound. Foreman provides fans with a detailed workaround on Switchfoot's message board, although the forum posting is later deleted by Sony.
July 11, 2001 Facing a flurry of lawsuits, the file-sharing service Napster shuts down, but not before transforming the music industry away from physical product like CDs and toward digital downloads, which eventually leads to streaming.
June 1, 1999 Napster, a file-sharing service that lets users download songs for free, goes online. It shuts down in 2001 amid a raft of lawsuits, but not before upending the music industry, which sees a steep decline in sales of CDs.
October 27, 1998 The first Now That's What I Call Music! compilation CD is released in America, with 17 hits from the likes of Hanson ("MMMBop"), Spice Girls ("Say You'll Be There") and Cherry Poppin' Daddies ("Zoot Suit Riot"). Many more follow, typically three per year. The first 29 all go Platinum.
December 17, 1997 MP3.com goes online, allowing independent artists to make their music available for download. It goes public in 1999 but runs into legal problems when posting music by major-label acts. In 2001, it's sold to Vivendi, which sells it in 2003 to CNET, which is just interested in the domain name.
January 15, 1992 Appearing on Entertainment Tonight, Brenda Lee criticizes the selections for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, noting the lack of female talent - such as The Shirelles, Dionne Warwick, and Connie Francis. She calls them "the women who pioneered rock and roll" and points out that they're just as important as the men.
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