Recent studies of recording industries have begun to shift from focusing on corporate structures and technology to increasing inclusion of the impact of such technologies on the musical craftsmen (Hesmondhalgh 2019; Stahl 2013). Compensatory studies that attend to musicians in studios reveal the extent to which music industries exploit creative joy for the sake of profit margins at the cost of human well-being and economic stability. In Türkiye Romani communities have been socially, politically and economically marginalized since the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires into the contemporary Republic period, yet throughout these periods have provided crucial services in niche occupations---musicianship constituting the most prestigious and audible work. By focusing on the role of Romani musicians in the changing structures of the Ottoman-Turkish recording industries, I propose a deeper understanding of the role of creative laborers whose musical production has been a crucial yet hidden factor in recording history. From 1890 to the present, the Ottoman to Turkish recording periods evidence dialectical influences by which musicians' subjectivities were shaped, as well profoundly impacted the structures of recording practices. In this way I expand upon Sterne’s 2013 insight into the mutual development of technology, fidelity and liveness into the co-development of musicians’ craftsmanship, subjectivity and recordings. Drawing upon field research and archival materials, I propose 5 areas of investigation: 1) local values and traditions of craftsmanship; 2) mimesis in terms of dialectical relationship between "live" and "recorded" sound; 3) genrefication; 4) tensions between commercial -v- state discourses; 5) transnational distribution networks.