Delaware Valley Archivists Group

The 2010 Hagley Prize for the best book in business history has been awarded to David Suisman, University of Delaware, for Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music (Harvard University Press, 2009). The award was presented by Hagley Museum and Library at the Business History Conference annual meeting – this year held at the University of Georgia in Athens in March 24-27. The prize committee included Donald C. Jackson (Lafayette College), chair; Jocelyn Wills, (Brooklyn College, CUNY) and Eric Rau (University of Delaware). The following is the citation in its entirety written by the Hagley Prize committee:In his book, David Suisman examines how music – and the music industry – was transformed by the invention and commercialization of “mechanical reproduction” of sound from the 1880s through the onset of the Great Depression. Today it is almost impossible to imagine a world in which sound and music are not available in huge quantity at the touch of an MP3 player or through streams of "muzak" that extend into the deepest reaches of public and private space. But the place and power of recorded sound in our lives is something that did not spring forth as an act of nature, but instead was socially and culturally constructed by humans operating within the world of private enterprise and government regulated property rights.In this deeply researched book, Suisman examines the commercialization of sound from early music publishing houses through the proliferation of both "player pianos" made by the Aeolian Company and "talking machines" manufactured by key companies such as Edison’s National Phonograph Company, and the Victor Talking Machine Company as they innovated in merchandising phonograph players and the sound made available on what evolved into the modern disc record. At the heart of his analysis is the way that music and sound reproduction prompted a dramatic rethinking of traditional notions of property rights, eventually fostering a concept of "intellectual property" that undergirds almost every aspect of the modern Information/Media industry. Suisman brings to the forefront the importance of the 1909 Copyright Act in expanding the place of intellectual property in American commerce and especially the way that the new law was driven by lobbying from major music publishing companies. In this, the book makes clear that an appreciation of the music industry is vital if we are to understand how ideas of property and copyright have become essential components of the modern business landscape.Written with great clarity and making imaginative use of illustrations, Selling Sounds explicates the business of commercial music but never loses sight of the cultural status of music in the lives of people. This is a history that understands both the power of large enterprise, as well as the importance of individuals -- from composer John Philip Sousa, to opera star Enrico Caruso, to the African-American entrepreneurs who founded Black Swan Records in the early 1920s, to local dry goods merchants seeking new sales opportunities, to consumers who found cultural meaning in the collecting and playing of records. Selling Sounds is an important book that intertwines the history of business and culture in remarkable ways and the committee is proud to award David Suisman the 2010 Hagley Prize.The Hagley Museum and Library recommends Suisman’s book to you and extends its hearty congratulations to the author -- Congratulations, David!