Steve Jobs “killed” the music business, at least that’s what Jon Bon Jovi thinks. The musician recently spoke with The Times Sunday Magazine and said that the move to digital music, lead by iTunes, all but ended the “magical” experience of listening to music.
According To Bon Jovi, gone are the days when you would discover new music while donning headphones in a music store, cranking the music up to 10 and ignoring the problems in your life.
He goes on to say that buying music “by the track” has taken away the mystique of music buying:
“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,” while he added, “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 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’ personally responsible for killing the music business.”
For their part, Apple developers have tried to give a full listening experience, for example iTunes LP allows listeners to listen from end-to-end of albums with full album art, but unfortunately that program lacks pre-listening discovery, which can be remedied with programs such as GrooveShark.
If you ask me, it has been the last decade of record label greed that has killed the enjoyable part of the industry. I remember watching CD’s rise in price on what seemed like a monthly basis, while the quality of music turned into a turnkey type business full of pop recycling from a handful of producers, if anyone killed the music business, it was the music business.
These days I can download the songs I want, watch their music videos on YouTube, find song meanings and lyrics using Google search and even watch interviews about those albums online with live performances thrown in for good measure.
Sure the “magical” aspect of popping on a Vinyl may be gone, but if used properly there is a lot more to discover about the music we buy when online “magic” is thrown into the mix.
