Decca recording session, 1941

The coming of World War II was a worldwide tragedy but a boon for the record industry. Suddenly the governments and armed services of many nations had an interest in purchasing and using sound recording equipment. The entertainment industries of Hollywood and elsewhere were called into service to record music for the entertainment of troops. In the United States, the military sponsored the recording of both ordinary 10-inch discs (the standard consumer disc since about 1900) and “V-discs” for this purpose. V-discs were large, 16-inch diameter discs made of flexible vinyl plastic. They were similar to the discs then being used by radio broadcasters to record programs. They held 15 minutes or so of recorded sound and could be shipped overseas without fear of breaking. The U.S. army also experimented with other forms of recording, such as magnetic recording on wire, for the use of journalists. Although these devices did not have any real impact on the record industry at the time, they were a sign of things to come. While the troops were being fully entertained, consumers experienced a drought. Angered by the way radio used records without any payment to musicians, band leader Fred Waring filed suit in Pennsylvania to force the broadcasting industry to pay royalties. At the time, radio broadcasters paid a small royalty to the copyright owners every time a song was broadcast, but not to the musicians who had created the recording. Waring set off a battle that would take years to resolve. Even more dramatic was “Petrillo’s War.” James Petrillo (president of the American Federation of Musicians) in 1942 began demanding compensation to musicians for records being played on the radio or on jukeboxes. When the record companies refused, Petrillo called for a general strike– no records (except for those intended for the war effort) were made between the summer of 1942 and November, 1944. With the end of the war, many in the record industry hoped for a renewed interest in music listening at home. Great technological changes were underway. During the 1930s and early 1940s, the German companies AEG and I.G. Farben had steadily improved the technology of magnetic recorders. These were “liberated” from Germany by the Allies in 1945 and became the basis of remarkable studio tape recorders. The use of these recorders would soon revolutionize the making of records and movie soundtracks. What consumers saw in the stores was also changing. A few manufacturers in the late 1930s had offered what they called “high fidelity” electronic equipment. A relatively new English company, Decca, began selling high fidelity discs after World War II. Then, in 1948 and 1949, the Victor and Columbia companies introduced the new 45-rpm disc for singles and the Long Playing record for albums. These new high fidelity discs marked a new era in the home record player.