On the 23rd of July 1898 Fred Gaisberg, at the age of 25 set sail on the 9 a.m. SS Umbria Cunard ship from New York to Liverpool. He was sent by the inventor of the Gramophone, Emile Berliner to London as one of the first sound engineers to set up a recording studio inContinue reading “Gaisberg’s Travels”
Tag Archives: 1898
Kylie Minogue, banned drugs and sex songs, and 19th century “exotic” dancers…harumph!
In 2007 the Australian National Film & Sound Archive set up a “hall of fame” for recordings that comprise the history of the recorded sound in Australia. They call it “Sounds of Australia” and each year they induct notable recordings into it. This year’s entries have just been announced and its received a lot ofContinue reading “Kylie Minogue, banned drugs and sex songs, and 19th century “exotic” dancers…harumph!”
Recorded music sales are growing exponentially. Supply can’t keep up with demand….
….in 1898! We followed how the Gramophone Company and its German sister company had some significant teething problems with the production of discs during the first year of business in 1898. Whilst the English company was dependent upon its discs coming from Germany it had also agreed to source its gramophones from the American manufacturingContinue reading “Recorded music sales are growing exponentially. Supply can’t keep up with demand….”
The main problem with starting new businesses…
…is getting all the ducks in a row. The early recording business proved no different. Emile Berliner decided to set up his European disc pressing factory in Germany rather than England in 1898. In doing so he created the German Gramophone Company – aka Deutsche Grammophon (DG). Berliner’s European operations were therefore split in two.Continue reading “The main problem with starting new businesses…”
How Deutsche Gramophone was born
We saw how Trevor Williams and William Barry Owen set up The Gramophone Company in England in 1897-8 to exploit Emile Berliner’s new gramophone technology by finding & recording artists and marketing and selling their records – as well as selling the gramophones to play them on. Under their deal with Berliner, Williams and OwenContinue reading “How Deutsche Gramophone was born”
London’s first recording studios
In an earlier blog entry we touched upon (EMI predecessor) The Gramophone Company’s first recording studio which was located two doors up from Rules Restaurant at 31 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. This would have been the very first recording studio in London, pre-dating Abbey Road Studios by 33 years! Those kind people at the EMIContinue reading “London’s first recording studios”
The invention of the modern music star in a hotel bedroom in Milan
Fred Gaisberg was one of the men who invented the recording industry. In 1893 he worked in the States as the assistant to Emile Berliner, who had just invented the gramophone disc, and then Gaisberg went on to open and run the world’s first recording studio. In 1898 Gaisberg moved to London to make theContinue reading “The invention of the modern music star in a hotel bedroom in Milan”
Sound Of The Hound 