Bon Jovi says Steve Jobs killed music business

once upon a time, long long ago ...video killed the radio star... it's all relative, based on progression.

Or, Steve Jobs saved music. Another way to look at the picture.

Excellent !
American rock musician thinks Jobs is "killing" the music industry with iTunes.
http://www.directcomposer.com

Bon Jovi, if your going to whine about what's been lost, then complain about music RECORDING. Before recording, if people wanted to hear music, they had to GET TOGETHER and PLAY music. That was much better for culture than watching an idiot in tight pants jump around and scream on stage.

Yes, I remember those days when you could walk into a mall record store and choose from a hobbled selection of whatever they wanted to sell you, and if you wanted something different you had to travel into the nearest city, deal with elitist and cranky record store employees "uh, no dude, we don't have it, but uhhhhh...we can order it and get it in a month or so..."

No, thanks, I like iTunes just fine. It would have been nice to see the record stores beat iTunes to the punch....they could have done so pretty easily.

As a graphic designer, I do have one lament: the old 12" LPs were a wonderful graphic platform for an array of amazing and creative album covers...a completely dead art nowadays. That's one thing I will miss.

What kills the music business is, the industry itself. The music industry, internationally, is extremely ancient and backwards in terms of their licensing. There are a TON of music I want to purchase, but are not available in the US. Your option in the past (and today) is to import the CD, which can be extremely expensive, and not to mention, "illegal" per the label's own licensing on where that CD is released (if you read the fineprint, it's stated that a CD is only for sale in the region it was released). With the advent of digital downloads like iTunes, you would think this barrier is completely gone, but no. There are still a TON of music that is not available in iTunes US, yet available in the foreign iTunes stores. Add on to that fact that I cannot just purchase music from non-US iTunes store without some workarounds. WTF? The music labels literally don't want me to give them my money and purchase their songs legally! It's easier for me to just do a search for the torrent and download the music, for free, in lossless form to boot!

Of course there's two sides to this story, and many sides to the comments and responses in this quick-growing thread. Most have sided against Bon Jovi, questioning his relevence on the topic, his motives, and personal investment in his opinion. Being old enough to recall his band's rise to stardom, and of course the relative indifference to his music these days (despite a recent record-setting world tour), I'd say his opinion is relevent. Certainly his music is not cutting-edge, but then again it never was. Bon Jovi was always blasted by critics, and yet always had a huge audience for the kind of light, cookie-cutter arena rock that maintains a substantial enough audience to continue to make him relevent.

It is difficult to weigh in on his comments because they were probably removed out of context for the purpose of this article, So I would have to disagree with the overall headline that states "Steve Jobs killed the music industry," when, as many others have pointed out, iTunes has done the opposite, bringing both the record companies and the artists more "money." At the same time, having experienced his nostalgic recollection of purchasing being informed by album artwork, and immersing myself in these purchases over and over, I can see his point. Back in the day, information about music came from fanzines, word of mouth, books and the radio. I recall finding and buying "The Velvet Underground and Nico", informed mostly by other artist namedropping the band in interviews, strapping the Verve release on the back of my tenspeed with bungie cords, and bumming hard when I found out I gouged the sleeve by the time I got home. Once home, slapping on the headphones just in case mom could make out the lyrics of "Heroin," all the while studying the liner notes and quotes within.

Of course, said album is today considered a seminal rock recording from the Sixties, but using the album as an example points out an interesting conundrum many of Bon Jovi's detractors seem to have missed. While not a true "concept" album (at this point, the whole band was an Andy Warhol concept), Bon Jovi haters point out the justice in now being able to buy the "one or two good songs" on an album, and avoiding the "dreck." Applying this logic to this particular album (and any number of seminal recordings as well), do I download "Heroin," "All Tomorrow's Parties" and "I'm Waiting for the Man" because they are the best songs on the album? How does this logic apply to an album without filler? If you're purchasing a lot of albums with "one or two good songs", perhaps you should re-examine the artists of choosing, and try something else.

Having used both models (instant download/retail purchase), of course I can never go back-and love the fact that it's all so accessable. But I wouldn't trade my experiences with musical immersion either.

The music industry killed itself out of greed. Even under the current business model, the musician or writer does not get the bulk of the fees, as they should.

The current crop of stars are dubiously good looking and/or loud and obnoxious human beings.

Not real musicians or writers by any stretch.

And someone, please kill AutoTune!

*That* music industry is dead, and good riddance.

What he seems to forget is that .mp3 downloads were already killing the album sales before the iPod & iTunes came along. If anything Apple has saved music sales.