I'm kind of surprised that this article did not mention John Philip Sousa, who was both one of the most successful "recording artists" of that time and one of the most outspoken opponents of recorded music.

(If you are American, you definitely know Sousa. Think of any patriotic march you've ever heard. Sousa probably wrote that.)

Sousa was not so much worried about the economic effects, but about how the new technology would change the social function of music. It would change what music was. He worried that instead of people gathering around the family or neighborhood pianist and singing together, they would be alone in their own rooms passively listening.

He worried that children would no longer gather on neighbourhood stoops to make up their own little songs and sing them together, but would all start passively consuming the same music as every one else in the country.

Sousa was worried that recoding technology would change music from active social interactions where we create music together into isolated, passive consumption.

Sousa was right.