Sean Patrick Cooper

Fred Gaisberg (1873-1951: 78yrs) was in many ways the first record producer and A&R man (A&R being artist and repertoire—the division of a record company that acquires, nurtures, grows talent).

From the Continuum Encyclopedia Of Popular Music (an invaluable resource): 

“In 1899, the Gramophone Company of London sent recording engineer Fred Gaisberg on the first of many field trips to make recordings of music in numerous cities of Europe and Asia. The purpose of these recordings was to assist local agents appointed by the manufacturers in the sale of gramophones to the middle and upper classes of each country. Other companies organized similar field trips.”

It started w/ Thomas Edison invention of the phonograph, which both recorded and played sound via tinfoil sheet cylinders. Then a dude named Emile Berliner flattened the cylinder into a disc—the early predecesor to the flat records we are more familiar w/ today. 

Jump ahead and soon multiple record companies are producing the new flat-record playing phonograph machines, producing both machine and record. Problem is though that there’s not much recorded music around the turn of the 20th century. In steps Fred Gaisberg.

Gaisberg’s task was to go to various cities around Europe and Asia, locate musicians, convince them to let him record them, and then turn their performances into commercial recordings. 

In other words, Gaisberg converted the community music performance into a commodity that his employer could then sell throughout Europe and N.America. 

This allowed musicians to have ‘fans’ through various locations, but it also disrupted what I imagine was at one time an exclusively community-oriented experience. Originally, if a local ‘fan’ wanted to hear a favorite performer, that fan had to go to the performer’s concert, along w/ other fans, and share in the listening experience. W/ the phonograph machine at home, the fan could then listen to the performer whenever that fan wanted to, potentially replacing the community event w/ a private experience @ home. Good or bad? Could make strong arguments either way.*

*assuming, of course, that for a lot of these local fans, a home record player was an affordable addition to the early 20th century living room.