alang wrote:There was definitely a 10 year slump for records after the radio gained popularity in the late 1920s. The stock market crash probably had an even bigger impact, because record sales came back when the economy improved. There are so many records still around from the mid to late 1930s and from the 1940s, so sales definitely had recovered by then. At that point I also thing that the radio helped boost record sales by broadcasting music everywhere thus creating demand for the records. Best documented example is probably Elvis Presley's rise to stardom from a single record played on a small local radio station. It probably took a while for the record companies to realize the marketing potential of the new medium radio, after first viewing it as competition and enemy.
Andreas
In the late summer of 1928 at a stockholder's meeting (radio by this time was firmly established)president Schumacher of Victor boasted to those at the meeting that 1928 was the best year in over a decade for the company.Orthophonic recording,tie ups with the infant talking picture industry and the signing of new fresh talent was a windfall for the company.
In looking through all issues of radio retailing magazine from jan 1928 to Dec 1929 one sees countless ads for electric phonograph related equipment from Pacent,Audak,Webster, Erla ,Phonovox as well as 15 new radio phonographs in the October 1928 issue.
Even companies that did not produce records offered electric phonographs..Capehart,Mills,Sparton,Steinite Sonora saw that radio was an ally,not a threat to their business.It was the economy,not the competition of radio that made records luxury that by the summer of 1930 everyone could do without.
Edison closed down operations after the stock market crash because of the crash,not because of competition from radio.His market share was almost nil and with a few notable exceptions could not draw the talent so he may not have survived anyway should the pre depression robust nature of the economy continued