A few days ago, Bon Jovi was interviewed and he proclaimed that Steve Jobs (co-founder and chief executive of Apple Inc.) was personally responsible for killing the music industry. Talking to The Sunday Times Magazine he stated:
Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the (CD) jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it. God, it was a magical, magical time. I hate to sound like an old man now, but I am, and you mark my words, in a generation from now people are going to say: 'What happened?' Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music industry.
(The full interview/article can be read by clicking here: http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=635420&affid=100055)
Powerful words! Since he made his statement, there has been quite the stir up over what he said and I have my own little two cents on the situation.
Now I agree that the music industry is continuously going downhill and that the joy of going to a store to pick up a CD is diminishing. Its actually very sad. I mean, I’m one of the few people that will still go out to a store and buy my favourite artist’s CD when its released on new release Tuesdays. If its an artist that I really like, I won’t even listen to any previews or anything and will wait till the full album comes out before giving it a solid listen. I know, I know: I’m old school that way. Its odd but, I wholeheartedly agree with Jon that those were definitely the days and that there will eventually come a point where people will ask “what happened?”
That being said, I disagree with the fact that Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music industry. My question to Bon Jovi is how? Why? If anything, Steve Jobs has actually given the industry revitalization and hope. Before iTunes came along, there was a huge period of illegal downloads via Limewire, Torrents and all those other peer to peer sharing methods. And, although they still exist, iTunes has come as a sort of saviour to prevent and encourage the purchasing and supporting of music. People now have the alternative of simply clicking a button and downloading a song in high quality directly to their computer and to their iPod for just a little over $1 per song. They have the option of buying full albums that come with a PDF Digital Booklet (pretty much identical to the liners found in the jewel case of a CD) or they can use the preview button before buying and choose to purchase only the songs they like from the album. This method has been criticized by some, including Jay-Z, however in my opinion that is better than someone a) paying for a full album and not liking half the tracks and b) not buying the album at all. I mean, before iTunes came along, I would sometimes get albums without listening to them beforehand only to find a few good tracks on them wondering why I spent that money for just two good songs. Heck, even today, when I used to work at HMV, people would come in and listen to an album and find they only like 2/3 songs and would thus not buy it at all. At least via iTunes, artists can still make money through individual downloads.
In addition to audio, iTunes also offers the sale of music videos which is another way for the music industry to make money. Before, music videos were simply just played on TV and would barely be available for one to own or purchase. Now, people can buy music videos of their favourite artist and song and store it and watch it on their iPods. I don't understand how that is a bad thing or how its the reason for the “death” of the music industry.
Technology is continuously evolving and people evolve with it. Digital downloads are just another evolution of the musical format; just like CDs replaced tapes, digital downloads are the evolution of CDs. CDs aren’t even extinct yet! They are still quite big and pretty much every album released digitally is also available on CD. Listeners simply have an option on how they want to purchase it. Without iTunes the number of illegal downloads would continue to sky rocket and the decline of the CD would still occur...nobody wins. iTunes allows users to get their music digitally, legally.
I think Jon Bon Jovi needs to get with the times...or maybe, if it makes him happier, Steve Jobs can remove his musical catalogue off iTunes.
No comments:
Post a Comment