The only media available for the recording of classical music in 18th century was print, of course, and that business is essentially the same now, with a few minor changes. The printing of music parallels the printing of words, with the earliest examples being carved on wooden plates, then engraved on metal plates, which eventually changed to movable music type, and has now moved to digital. Then it would have been printed, arranged into a book, and sold to the public in music shops. The first publishers began to appear in the 18th century in the major German cities, and by the late 18th century they were also in the United States. They would often look for exclusive rights from a composer for European distribution, but Beethoven was known to have sold the "exclusive" rights to a single work to several competing publishers. He did the same thing with commissions and world premieres as well, but that's a different story for another time.

Eventually an orchestral works would make it around the continent and be performed by the local orchestras, which could be of varying quality. Some people might live too far away to go to a concert, and in any case there might only be a single performance, or at best a handful of performances. In order for more people to learn and enjoy a work, orchestral pieces were often reduced to a piano version, which were the bread-and-butter of publishers, along with solo piano works and chamber works which could be performed at home. Sometimes these reductions were arranged by the composer, but often they were done by someone else. Liszt famously transcribed all of Beethoven's Symphonies, with the Ninth Symphony requiring two pianos. These transcriptions/ reductions are still popular today.

Music was as popular with people then as it is now, so it was a major industry, and the concept of copyright went hand in hand with the printing of music. The first major copyright law was the Statute of Anne in 1709, which made the printing of music exclusive to the original publisher for 14 years, which was later amended to 21 years. This is important because while a publisher might have the exclusive rights for a while, eventually they would lose exclusivity and any publishing house could then print and sell that music (public domain). As the fame of composers grew throughout the 19th century, this was a huge windfall for publishers who could print the best-selling works of composers like Beethoven and Mozart without having to pay out royalties, making them very profitable. Today the exclusive term of copyrights has been extended greatly, due to heavy lobbying by the Disney corporation and the Gershwin estate.