Not sure if he’s still ticked off from not being selected for this year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but for some reason Jon Bon Jovi has decided to pin all what ails the music industry on Steve Jobs – accusing the Apple CEO of ‘killing the music business.’
Grasping at the nostalgia of rifling through albums at the local record store, Bon Jovi figures the rise of iTunes has taken away from the joy of discovering music. Last I checked the Bon Jovi catalog was still available on iTunes, so he can’t be that mad.
Bon Jovi tells The Sunday Times Magazine:
“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.”
I can remember record stores and all the fun that went with discovering new music without the benefit of a 90 second digital preview. But Bon Jovi accusing Jobs of killing off the music business of yesteryear comes off as totally ignorant, totally discounting how technology has allowed so much amazing music to be discovered and loved globally.
And I’m sorry but didn’t the popularizing of legal digital distribution of music via Apple help the music labels? I realize digital music sales are sluggish, but it’s a helluva lot easier for Bon Jovi Fan A to buy and share a Bon Jovi song with Bon Jovi Fan B then back when the band hit the scene.
The singer adds: “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.”
Does he mean a magical time when you took a chance and bought an album that ended up sucking except for one song? And what of music piracy? Hasn’t that also helped to destroy the cushy universe once enjoyed by music business folks? Is that Jobs’ fault as well?
And no mention of Napster. or BitTorrent. Or any of the numerous file-sharing sites that turned the music ‘biz on its head, totally reshaping the business.
Yes, there is a tangible ‘experience’ that’s lost without the chance to spend hours inspecting an album jacket while the needle tracks across vinyl. Yes, there’s a frantic method to consuming music nowadays.
But guess what – I have more Bon Jovi in my collection now then when I could actually buy their albums in a record store. I can read about an old Bon Jovi song in an article, flip over to iTunes for a quick listen and buy the damn thing if I like it.
And that experience does not suck. I have added more awesome music to my collection just by surfing through iTunes, jumping from an old artist I had forgotten about straight to the debut of a new band I heard on a music blog the other day. Do you think Mumford & Sons share Bon Jovi’s feelings? I think not.
Does anyone really give a shit nowadays because they can’t stare for hours at the Slippery When Wet album cover? The world of digital entertainment and distribution is not perfect, but it’s definitely ‘magical’ in plenty of ways – whether Jon Bon Jovi gets it or not.
What do you think of Jon Bon Jovi’s comments about Steve Jobs?
* The Bon Jovi/Steve Jobs battle continues – this time with photos! Admittedly there’s not going to be much ‘variety’ with Steve Jobs pictures. But still, how annoying was Jon Bon Jovi’s hair in the ’80s?