Bon Jovi Says Steve Jobs Killed Music Business
March 19th, 2011 | 
Author: 
In a recent article in The Sunday Times Magazine, Jon Bon Jovi is quoted as saying: “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. 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 business.” 
Former record label promotion executive and music industry blogger responded in his weekly blog to Bon Jovi’s comments with an open letter. Here are some excerpts from Steve’s letter:
“Dear Jon:
You’ve been making records a long time. In fact, when you had your first Billboard chart hit in 1984 (“Runaway,” which peaked at #39) CDs had already been in the retail music market two years.
Now, thirty-nine years after CDs were first introduced to the consumer, you seem to have forgotten that it was the CD, not Steve Jobs, that made kids miss “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.” ….
Funny thing about CDs, I don’t ever remember any artists I worked with at the time complaining about the hefty royalty checks they were receiving as their catalog(s) were released in the new format and sold millions all over again. Not a one. Nope. It was a good time for the labels and all their artists as billions were generated in revenues just from re-releasing older albums on CD.”
You can read Steve’s entire letter at http://stevemeyer.webs.com/
So, what do you think? Do you agree with Bon Jovi or with Steve Meyer’s assessment of this situation?
Posted in Branding, marketing, Online Media, Quality of life, Social media | 
Tags: Apple, Bon Jovi, iTunes, music, music industry, rock music, Steve Job
Poor Jon. Doesn’t get the big picture. iTunes breathed a little bit of life back into the grasping and gasping record companies. It’s a singles world again, but then Jon wouldn’t remember the ’50s and ’60s – and doesn’t make hits anymore anyway. Microsoft tried to get labels to sell albums via Music Central.com in the late ’90s (a la Amazon with books). But no, the labels resisted, locked into the record store/radio paradigm. And where’s that at now? And Steve Meyer is right about all those CD sales. Perhaps if they’d been priced reasonably, kids wouldn’t have thought music should be available for free – instead of just promotional tools for tours. Look to the Internet for clues.