Music Technology

This Very Short Introduction takes an expansive and inclusive approach meant to broaden and challenge traditional views of music and technology. In its most common use, "music technology" tends to evoke images of twentieth and twenty-first century electronic devices: synthesizers, recording equipment, music notation software, and the like. This volume, however, treats all tools used to create, store, reproduce, and transmit music—new or old, electronic or not—as technologies worthy of investigation.

Thomas Dolby's hit songs "She Blinded Me with Science" and "Hyperactive!" catapulted him to international fame in the early '80s. A pioneer of New Wave and Electronica, Thomas combined a love for invention with a passion for music, and the result was a new sound that defined an era of revolutionary music. But as record company politics overshadow the joy of performing, Thomas finds a surprising second act.

This is the complete history of the synthesizer—from electromagnetic experiments in the 1870s to the software and hardware you use today. You'll discover how these instruments evolved from room-sized laboratory equipment to portable analog classics to digital dominance to the software revolution to the analog revival happening right now. Every major instrument, every breakthrough, every paradigm shift that shaped how electronic music gets made. You'll understand why the Minimoog became legendary, how the Prophet-5 changed everything with patch memory, why the DX7 killed analog synthesis ...

Bloomsbury presents Uncharted Territory: What Numbers Tell Us about the Biggest Hit Songs and Ourselves by Chris Dalla Riva , read by John Moraitis. Popular music history collides with data analytics, charts, and numbers in this insightful and surprising look at the greatest hits and musicians...

Featuring original music by Kid Cudi. A raw, fearless memoir from the Grammy Award–winning artist, actor, and designer Kid Cudi about a kid from Cleveland who found purpose in the darkness and became a guiding light for a generation. Cudi: The Memoir is Scott Mescudi’s most personal work yet...

WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD “A gripping thriller that pulls back the curtain on the secret world of tech billionaires.”—Time (100 Must-Read Books of 2025) “A stone-cold banger of a novel—a twisty journey through Silicon Valley’s dark side, wrapped in a stunning mystery package with...

Sound therapy has been found effective in treating a surprising range of health challenges including heart disease, arthritis, stress, emphysema, and more. On Self-Healing with Sound and Music, bestselling author and physician Dr. Andrew Weil teams up with sound therapist Kimba Arem to offer...

Brought to you by Penguin. No sex. No kids. No future? When Tom Feiling moved to Tokyo as a student in the early nineties, Japan was a beacon of the future: a rising superpower, a technology giant, and a global symbol of prosperity, civility and success. When he returned twenty-four years later...

When an army of giant robot AIs threatens to devastate Earth, a virtuoso pianist becomes humanity's last hope in this bold, lightning-paced, technicolor space opera series from the author of A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe. Jazz pianist Gus Kitko expected to spend his final moments on...

This audiobook tells the story of how Philo Farnsworth came up with the idea for electronic television at age 14, and later developed his idea into the technology for television that is still used today.

From the bestselling author of Warm Bodies comes a new story of connection—to technology and to each other—that asks how hard we’re willing to fight to stay human. A genre-defying novel for fans of Neuromancer, Klara and the Sun, and speculative fiction with a heart. All Robin wants is to...

Discover the brilliant life of Hedy Lamarr. This talented film actress became an influential scientist with her invention of a secret radio system in the early 1940s, a building block of today’s wireless communications.

In AND WE PUTTIN IT ON WAX, delve into an absorbing odyssey that charts the transformation of music through the ever-evolving platforms on which it's experienced. From the grooves of vinyl records to the ephemeral world of streaming, this book reveals how shifts in technology don't merely change how we listen, but alter the very essence of the music itself. Through insights frommusicians, producers, and industry insiders across diverse genres, we explore how artistic choices are influenced by medium, and how these choices reverberate through culture. Immerse yourself in a rich narrative ...

Are you ready to take a unforgettable trip back to 1976—the year it all began? 100 Fascinating Facts About 1976: The Year You Were Born is a heartwarming and entertaining journey into one of the most memorable years in modern history. Created as a meaningful 50th birthday gift, this nostalgic keepsake is packed with fun discoveries, surprising stories, and unforgettable moments from the year you were born. Whether you are shopping for a loved one, a friend, a parent, or even yourself, this charming 1976 birthday book brings the past to life with fascinating details about the people, ...

In recent years, narratives about the music industry tend to hew to a common theme: it was humming along for decades until the Internet and Napster came along and disrupted it. Key Changes shows that this view is incorrect: the industry was actually shaken up not once in the 1990s, but ten times over more than 100 years.

For most of human history, music disappeared the moment the performance ended. Then inventors discovered how to capture sound—and listening changed forever. 25 Milestones in Recorded Music traces the formats, technologies and ideas that transformed music from a fleeting experience into something that could be preserved, reproduced, edited, collected and heard almost anywhere. Beginning with the phonautograph and Edison’s phonograph, this chronological journey explores the rise of the gramophone disc, the 78 RPM record, jukeboxes, magnetic tape, the LP, the 45 RPM single, multitrack ...

A poet’s audio obsession, from collecting his earliest vinyl to his quest for the ideal vacuum tubes. A captivating book that “ingeniously mixes personal memoir with cultural history and offers us an indispensable guide for the search of acoustic truth” (Yunte Huang, author of Charlie...

The definitive inside account of the file-sharing revolution that overthrew the music industry, All the Rave reveals the family betrayal, greed, and mismanagement that hijacked one the most fundamental innovations of the Internet era. Named one of the three best books of 2003 by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., All the Rave has been out of print until now and unavailable in most formats. Author and veteran technology journalist Joseph Menn also wrote 2010's Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords who are Bringing Down the Internet.

How do our brains give rise to our conscious minds? How do our minds learn and consciously experience miraculous creations of our civilizations, such as visual art, music, and the languages whose meanings enable us to think and communicate about our experiences in the world?

It's a big question, and one that has been written about endlessly in an attempt to reveal the "formula" for creating a worldwide, smash hit record. First of all a good song speaks to you. You remember it, even if it's just one really good line.... It fills you with emotions, whether those be sad or happy ones. Then there is something else...it's the way the music was produced and its techniques which hook you in and enhance the listening experience. Inside this book, you will find a timeless blueprint for making smash hit songs.