In the beginning there was no means of duplication, so a group would perform the same song ten times for ten cylinders. Each one of those cylinders being unique performances. I think the time was limited to like two minutes. Eventually they were duplication methods but like with cassettes each version degraded the quality so you could only get 100 dups. So bands would still record more than one master take.

early recording was very constrained and uniquely different from the live thing, even though it was meant to capture the live thing. when you think about composers prior to that making pieces for live performances that could extend for full hour long concerts a two minute piece of music was definitely a shift.

It was the limiting of the recording format that helped define cnsumable music not by listener desires necessarily.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." © Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."