Edison approving records

[marcapra]

Does anyone know when exactly did Thomas Edison stop being in charge of approving records for release? And if you know can you cite your source please?

[recordmaker]

Interesting question

The Raymond Wile book has the internal document by Edison where he is clearly involved with the comparison of Victor and Columbia output with the potential content of the new Diamond Discs.
As expected this puts forward mostly technical views but also considers that some singers are over rated as recording artiest even though their stage presence is acknowledged.

In much of his work Edison seems to have been great at delegating tasks but the publicity department, I think, still liked to maintain that he was in charge of everything, it is possible that a part the public of time trusted that image as what we would now think of as brand loyalty.

I understand there was a music committee that approved the records and I would have thought that Edison would have not have had time to listen ( as far as his hearing would allow ) to the full catalogue output even if he wanted to.

Now I cant site this but I also understood that the periods where Edison was in Fort Myers in the winters were opportunities to add stuff to the catalogue that would have been less than happy with.

[epigramophone]

I have heard that Edison's sons added jazz, which Edison hated, to the catalogues during his absences.
It has also been said that the belated development of the electrical recording process took place in secret without Edison's knowledge. His sons were simply trying to reverse the decline in the company's fortunes.

[edisonplayer]

It would have been around 1925 or thereabouts. edisonplayer.

[Marc Hildebrant]

Reading Edmund Morris's Book on Edison (excellent) I get the impression that around 1923 Edison reduced his involvement with selecting records and started his work into a USA source for rubber.

My collection of Edison DD records has many Jazz songs.

Marc

[Curt A]

Marc, your collection may have many cherry picked jazz titles, but the quantities produced as evidenced by surviving records was obviously less...

This is additionally evidenced by the above average prices for such titles due to supply and demand. There are literally millions of surviving mediocre undesirable titles at reasonable prices, while hot jazz/dance titles are virtually impossible to find in the wild.

TAE was a controlling old narcissist, when it came to giving modern music of the times a chance... Obviously, I'm not a fan of his... He's more like Bill Gates - neither one can claim they actually "invented by themselves" the technologies that made them rich and famous, they just realized the market potential...

Bill Gates didn't "invent" Windows - Some people get mixed up between the idea of a windowing GUI, and the fact that there is also a product called Windows. Apple was first to market a windowing GUI, but they certainly didn't invent it. Apple copied Xerox PARC, and Microsoft copied Apple.

TAE didn't "invent" the light bulb, in fact, some historians claim there were over 20 inventors of incandescent lamps prior to Edison’s version.

[JerryVan]

"...neither one can claim they actually "invented by themselves" the technologies that made them rich and famous, they just realized the market potential..."

What's wrong with that?

[Curt A]

"...neither one can claim they actually "invented by themselves" the technologies that made them rich and famous, they just realized the market potential..."

What's wrong with that?

Nothing is wrong with that, since they improved the technologies to be commercially viable...

My point is/was that most people credit them with being the "inventors" and put them in a higher place in history than actually deserved... If Edison had his way, we wouldn't be using AC current. Just don't put them on pedestals...

PS: Nobody has heard anything about the "other 20" lightbulb experimenters/inventors - only TAE...

[OrthoFan]

TAE was a controlling old narcissist, when it came to giving modern music of the times a chance... Obviously, I'm not a fan of his...

Oh dear... As a punishment for this heresy now you'll have to say three "Act of Contritions" and read "From Tinfoil to Stereo" FROM COVER TO COVER... ***

OrthoFan
*** If you've ever read the book, you'll know what I'm talking about.

[edisonplayer]

My late friend Jerry Donnell told me, "Edison was weird"!That was because of the stuff he put on his Diamond Discs. For example, the Old Man would've shown Gene Krupa the door. edisonplayer.