IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bushst/v58y2016i7p1095-1117.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The rise of the LP: the politics of diffusion innovation in the recording industry

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Harvey

Abstract

This article investigates how the standardisation of the 45 RPM single and 33 RPM album in 1951 forced the recording industry to rethink their marketing strategies. The industry’s focus on weak unit strategies and capitalisation on the emergent artistic aesthetic are evaluated. To establish correlations between strategies and the popularity of singles and albums between 1955 and 1979, OLS models were generated using large datasets on chart performance of albums and singles. This study concludes that the industry tended toward sub-optimal, risk-averse strategies, and that the LP likely succeeded despite record companies’ efforts to control their products and messaging.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Harvey, 2016. "The rise of the LP: the politics of diffusion innovation in the recording industry," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 58(7), pages 1095-1117, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:58:y:2016:i:7:p:1095-1117
    DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2016.1156673
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00076791.2016.1156673
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00076791.2016.1156673?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:58:y:2016:i:7:p:1095-1117. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FBSH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.