Regardless of England's refusal to register RCA The Red Seal. Other countries did not care too much about a colour, the Red Seal Label registrations were secured in France and the U.S.A. These 10" and 12" records became a viable source of income for the Victor Talking Machine Company introducing a young Enrico Caruso to the world in which more than 130,000,000 red-label records sold worldwide up to the year of 1942 with prices ranging from $1 to $7 in US currency. Some artists respectively received higher payments than popular singers did and organizations of the royalty system of payment were not yet a primary pattern. 1910 saw the singer Sophie Tucker being paid a sum of $100 per song with no royalties. For many years, all recording discs were one-sided until a Ademor Petit came up with the brilliant idea of placing musical selections on both sides of record. Ademor Petit described how molten shellac would spread more evenly by placing grooves on both side of a disc record. After he had received a patent for his idea in 1904, he then sold half of his interest to a person by the name of F. M. Prescott who went one to create an establishment for both of them in Europe and the U.S.A. On these double-sided discs were pictures of an Indian smoking a peace pipe! "Indian smoking a peace pipe indeed!!" What has a peace pipe got to do with music? Good gosh! Whatever was Mr. Prescott thinking of! Maybe Mr. Prescott had his sights set upon creating an impression on the American Indians hoping that they will patronised him! Could be that it was his idea of an entrepreneur selling tactics. On the contrary, that picture did not make any difference to the Victor Company because they decidedly bought out the U S rights. |
