Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business, says super-rich rock star
Bon Jovi, in an interview with the Sunday Times:
Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business.
He’s an angry rich rocker. Jobs, he says, has RUINED MUSIC FOR EVERYONE, the bastard.
Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the 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.
Yeah, you tell them, super-rich rock guy! After all, we all have wonderful memories of buying a shitty album based on the jacket, and that’s way better than being able to preview whatever you want, whenever you want, to make your purchasing decision based on the quality of the music. ONLY IDIOTS DO THAT KIND OF THING.
And, man, albums, eh? I’m really gutted that people will lose the ‘album’ experience, instead cherry picking the best songs. After all, this never used to happen at all (if you ignore, say, the entire singles market), and there’s no way whatsoever any band could ever persuade someone to buy an entire album these days (apart from by making every track worth buying, rather than shitting out an album with two decent tracks and eight lumps of turgid filler—BUT THAT WAY LIES MADNESS). And let’s also ignore the way in which Apple legitimised the download market, getting quite a few people to pay for downloads, rather than grabbing them from Limewire and Napster, because, as Bon Jovi says, JOBS HAS KILLED MUSIC. Never forget this as you go to iTunes, Amazon or 7digital to preview the tracks you’re interested in and then buy precisely what you want, with significantly more freedom than people had in previous decades. Just remember, as you click ‘buy’ on the one good track from Has Been Band’s new album (also grabbing a dozen tracks from a fantastic indie band you’d never have heard of without huge access to digital previews) that Steve Jobs has killed music for everyone.
Whether you’re religious or not, I hope you’ll join me in a silent prayer, to remember ‘music’ (which is now dead, apparently) and common sense (which followed it the second Bon Jovi opened his stupid rich rocker mouth).
I agree, but no surprises there. In the interests of fairness, I’ll also say:
1. Regarding quality (defined however you like; say commercial success just to be less subjective) vs filler, Bon Jovi does admittedly have a pretty enviable record. That doesn’t mean his argument is anything but commercial, of course; just that it has very slightly more weight coming from an artist that’s not known for a poor signal:noise ratio on their albums.
2. There is genuine value to the album model, naturally (speaking musically) for bands we enjoy and follow – but then that’s just an argument that entire albums should continue to be available, not that they should be the only delivery mechanism for music. Ability to choose which tracks we want to buy is clearly a far better proposition for the consumer.
Neither of which in any way detract from or dilute your argument, of course.
Jon By Jovi: “Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business.”
And JBJ is alleged to be personally responsible for killing several New Jersey bands (including most infamously Skid Row) so if Jobs is fucking up the ability to do business the JBJ way then I’m all for it.