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Bon Jovi: 'Steve Jobs Is Personally Responsible For Killing The Music Business'

billyworld99

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You can download Bon Jovi songs on iTunes, but don't expect the band to be too happy about it.

Rocker Jon Bon Jovi, whose band soared to prominence with its 1986 album Slippery When Wet, reminisced in the Sunday Times Magazine about his days as a kid in New Jersey, falling in love with music -- and ripped Apple CEO Steve Jobs for taking that opportunity away from a new generation of listeners.



"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," he said (via MSN), thinking back to his record buying days. Then came the less fanciful: the blame.



"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."



Interestingly, his criticism isn't about illegal downloading or any skewed road to success; instead, Bon Jovi is complaining about the actual experience of listening to music, which he thinks has been downgraded by iTunes downloads and iPods.



Apple's iTunes Store has become the number one music vendor in the country; on February 24th, it sold its 10 billionth song download. Of course, most downloads come in single song form, not a full album, and album art work certainly is less prominent. For his part, the rocker's band has released special editions of albums with bonus songs on the service (such as 2009's The Circle), though that may be in order to keep up with the times, not so much a celebration of online downloading
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...il&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily+Brief
 
billyworld99 said:
" . . . 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," he said (via MSN), thinking back to his record buying days.
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What about all the bad "decisions" that were made "based on the jacket [and] not knowing what the record sounded like," the records with one or two good tracks and a load of filler?

Bon Jovi sounds like someone who judges a book by its cover.
 
He makes a lot of sense here............


Music is no longer treasured as it was with vinyl and CD..............


with digital files..........it's all too plastic and disposable...........
 
As much as I love Bon Jovi and the guys in the band, he was all too happy to sell exclusive tracks from the latest compilation album in iTunes. He'd be surprised talking to a lot of old-school rockers and downloaders of that era that they do listen to full albums.

Maybe he should argue to have BJ's music not sold on iTunes like AC/DC if he feels that way.
 
Id much rather have the CD than a mp3 download which i cant even hold or look at.
 
Fascinating.

If presented with enough quality, I will buy an album.

Since when is Steve Jobs the one that is solely responsible for replaceable acts without true skills? Geez...
Last I checked you can acquire entire albums through iTunes should someone's jacket impress you that much.


And for the record, if presented with quality music, I'll gladly buy the album. Physically. But it won't be a Bon Jovi Album, I'm afraid. Just personal preference. And how many people just on this forum alone are yearning for physical releases- albums and also singles. (oooh the horror...)

What is it with people and these complaints? I guess as long as people were willing to pay over 20 Dollars for a CD the world was still turning and everything alright. Might want to check into the record labels responsibilities here.


iTunes was also fairly instrumental in the mass distribution of lesser known artists- artists that big chunks of the world would have never heard of if we were still stuck in the 80ies, the 'good times'. I don't miss those times. I really, really don't. Record labels had a long time to dig their own grave with lousy business plans, just like airlines. Times change.
Don't blame iTunes for being bright enough not wanting to join that nonsense. Their time is now= and sooner or later that'll change, too.
 
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I'm sad that cds are going away, because it's always a great experience to buy a cd. I still buy them when I know every song will be great.

However, why would anyone buy an album based solely on the album art, as Jon Bon Jovi suggested? That seems like a good way to waste a lot of money and end up with a lot of music that you don't like. I love being able to preview songs and albums online before deciding on a purchase.
 
I miss the old days a lot, the music from that time, this excessive technologization of.. anything, is beyond disturbing. Won't be long until i-phones or CD's or whatever digital tool will get so small and barely noticeable that the only way to have it with you is by having in you. Sci-fi? Hardly, already a truth in motion.
 
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I get what he is saying.
It's part of the reason why I still buy albums in record stores. I miss the way people would have patience and wait for a song or album to come out.
I don't buy albums all to often anymore though but when I know I really like a certain artists work or have heard enough songs of theirs to get me excited I love going to the record store and buying it.
I also like reading the notes inside the booklet and the pictures. Digitalized it does kind of take the fun away.
Not to mention many fanbases have already found a way to "cheat sales" with Itunes as well. (Making multiple accounts, then gifting songs to themselves, boosting their favorite artists sales,things like that) That also takes away from the fun of buying a song that you like. All these new records that keep popping up all the time and then them being broken a couple of months later. But I guess that's not really Itunes' fault.

I do understand that quality has a lot to do with it aswell. But many people will look at a "catchy simple" song on Itunes and go well it's just 99 cents (Or whatever their price may be) and buy it. Which explaines why there are many artists topping the charts that are selling more singles than albums nowadays.
The opposite is also around, certain artists sell less singles but more albums because their fans would rather wait for that knowing they get quality music.

So I don't think Itunes killed the music business but it did change the look and way of the industry perhaps.
I do wonder about one thing though, is it easy for a new (or unsigned) artist to get their song sold on Itunes? If so I think it does add something to the music industry like others were saying.
 
drewhiggins said:
As much as I love Bon Jovi and the guys in the band, he was all too happy to sell exclusive tracks from the latest compilation album in iTunes. He'd be surprised talking to a lot of old-school rockers and downloaders of that era that they do listen to full albums.

Maybe he should argue to have BJ's music not sold on iTunes like AC/DC if he feels that way.
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Spot on dude you nailed it with this post!
 
when I see a bon jovi Cd the crappy artwork's a red flag for the crappy music on the cd.
 
he has a valid point, however the very industry he works for is even more guilty.

cds cost less to make than tapes, but still 20 dollars for a new cd in 2011?

also alot of acts having 1-2 legit songs on a cd?

this is why i tunes and other formats have weeded out the tradional manner of the music business, still it doesn't mean that i tunes isn't above manipulating numbers either.

the consumer doesn't have much choice, because the powers that be control how you hear the music and then play dumb on tv when you say well you said to download or fileshare.
 
mistermaxxx said:
he has a valid point, however the very industry he works for is even more guilty.

cds cost less to make than tapes, but still 20 dollars for a new cd in 2011?
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Anywhere in Australia from $14 to $19. Then you have the ridiculous over-priced special editions which add a bonus track or two - sometimes a weak-arse club mix of the weakest song on the album - and a DVD which has three or four live performances. That isn't worth what they're asking, so naturally people are going to download them (as I've done). I don't mind paying for the first release but when they put out more exclusive releases, forget that.


That's where they're going wrong. A CD holds 80 minutes. So, either put it all on the CD considering most songs from the modern era are 4-5 minutes long, lasting 45-50 minutes. More than enough room.


also alot of acts having 1-2 legit songs on a cd?

this is why i tunes and other formats have weeded out the tradional manner of the music business, still it doesn't mean that i tunes isn't above manipulating numbers either.

the consumer doesn't have much choice, because the powers that be control how you hear the music and then play dumb on tv when you say well you said to download or fileshare.
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Depending on who the band are, it could have 12 songs and eight are excellent. Found a few of those lately and they cost me 5% of a new release. iTunes for whatever reason with what I like, either doesn't carry it or makes you buy the full album. Not doing either.

I find a lot of second-hand stores and bookstores sometimes carry CDs and those can be a real shock sometimes at how good they are, yet hardly promoted. Sometimes it's better to wait for eBay - given postage isn't stupidly expensive, you can sometimes pick up a bargain.


I'm sad that cds are going away, because it's always a great experience to buy a cd. I still buy them when I know every song will be great.

However, why would anyone buy an album based solely on the album art, as Jon Bon Jovi suggested? That seems like a good way to waste a lot of money and end up with a lot of music that you don't like. I love being able to preview songs and albums online before deciding on a purchase.
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CDs will never go out, the same way vinyl never did. Sometimes I've taken punts on albums (at $2 or $5) and figure if it's crap well I'll sell it. Sometimes I've been disappointed, other times I've been totally impressed with them. JBJ has the right idea but he needs to look at the same people distributing his records.

The artwork is no longer interesting. A colour photo of someone standing with their name below it...woop de woop. What happened to covers like this, or perhaps this?

The audio compression is beyond terrible. That's what puts me off a lot. Not to say 200 albums in the last two years has hardly put me off, but the sound I wonder sometimes...whatever happened to good sound? Bob Dylan actually mentioned it in an article as being 'just noise'.
 
I agree with the fact that original CD's are extremely expensive, I have started to buy much cheaper ones, compilations and things because of that, I simply cannot afford spending for such high-priced material any longer, esp since on here the economic crisis is still a reality and will be for a long time. ..
 
I agree with Bon Jovi. I kinda miss the old days of vinyl and cd's.
 
he's right in the sense that sharing media file programs like limewire, etc have made it easy to share files via one's itunes library on their hard drive, with a single click of a button.
 
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Steve Jobs is only making things easier for people, remember it's a choice, people chose to move on with digital rather than physical. Don't get me wrong though I'm pro physical all the way.
 
I remember the 90's when I first had the Dangerous album in my hands.............that was special..........it felt like gold.........

...........you can never replicate those feelings with something that doesn't exist as a physical item!!!
 
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