The way technology is defined today often flies in the face of previous eras’ definition of the term. For instance, the phonograph was a technological innovation once upon a time that today is viewed as more mechanical than technological simply because analog creations are often disregarded as part of that larger agglomeration of technology. So too enter into the frame the innovations of multitrack recording, the electric guitar, the synthesizer, auto-tune and MIDI controller which are widely part of both electronic and analog music today. Even the way that short-term letting such as the Airbnb platform was born from the basic need for housing during an international design conference for which all hotels were fully booked. From human necessity innovations are born and the reality is that most new tech innovations depend on old-world solutions in tandem with technology.
What we take as technological advancements in music, however, are often rooted in business and scientific innovations that have been adapted for creative markets or that are found to be as useful inside business as much as they are outside. What marks the place of music in new technology, however, is often how certain companies are themselves opening up to new markets such as Sony’s recent debut of speakers that can imitate a live concert and Apple’s letting go of its closed-loop software which for years notoriously refused to allow competitors to integrate their technology with Apple’s. Today Apple Music and iTunes are more seamlessly able to integrate other brands such as Amazon’s Echo devices and Android mobile phones.
What seems to be a hard-fast rule of divisions between digital an analog is not all that clear however. Today more and more music is integrating older technologies with newer just as companies are popping up to support new platforms such that audiences unable to cope with the demands of new technology are able to take advantage of this new universe.
