Jon Bon Jovi: Steve Jobs Is 'Killing the Music Business'

By Sarah Crow Posted Mar 17th 2011 11:30AM

Jon Bon Jovi: Steve Jobs is 'Killing the Music Business' While rock legends Bon Jovi have been living on a prayer, the music industry is living on borrowed time, according to frontman Jon Bon Jovi.

In an interview with London's Sunday Times magazine, the seasoned rocker, 49, bemoans the loss of music store culture and points his figure at an unlikely source of the industry's demise: Apple's head honcho Steve Jobs.

Bon Jovi says, "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."

Bon Jovi alludes to the notion that Apple's iTunes music store and its pay-per-song pricing model have destroyed music lovers' ability to fully appreciate the experience of buying an album.

"Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business," he says. "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?'"

Tags: jon bon jovi

Comments

(48)

Thursday 17 March

By Mikennedy

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I think 50 year olds still thinking they are rock and roll, are killing music itself.

By rkr1414

What a Pure IDIOT !

By Lynn

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While I am no fan of Bon Jovi, just because someone is 50 does not mean they don't know good rock and roll. You may understand this some day when you grow up. I prefer newer bands myself, and I am over 50. Now get back in the corner with your tinker toys.

By ken

its bitter but true but like everything else everything changes sometimes good sometimes bad the world cant wait for the next thing but the older you get less happy you are with change tou want it to stay to what your happy with

By bigD

The whole "change" umbrella only gives a glimpse of a bigger problem ITunes and the trend of younger listeners to only buy singles or 'hits', means many will never buy the cd and hear other potentially great songs that may not be released as singles. Some of my favorite songs were growing up were album cuts that weren't played on the radio. In addition, the availability of ITunes has killed profits made by selling larger works like Cd's or albums. Which hurts the industry overall and is the reason so little variety exists in pop music today.

By tony

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what happened?

By Jer

After hearing some Bon Jovi material especially the more recent stuff, I can see why he would rather get by on the album art.

By Janice

Talking about much the same thing last night with my cousin. We both have extensive vinyl collections. Sadly, many great songs are being lost because iTunes takes only the top song or two from many albums. Example: Joe Jackson's Night & Day was recorded without breaks between songs and was a thrill to listen to straight through. Also, lost are great cover art (Remember the frames you could get to hang your albums on the wall?) and fun liner notes. But like so many things in this day and age, it's more about speed and convenience than artistry.

By travelergtoo

The thing that is killing the music industry are CD's with only one good song worth listening to. The rest of the CD is absolute crap. The thing that is killing the music industry are artists that wastes their fans time by trying to make a quick buck.

By sunchld0

That's nothing new. In the 60's and later decades, record albums usually only had two good songs out of twelve.

By jen

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AMEN!!!

By Spaceman Eddie

Disagree with JBJ. What sold albums before were touring bands. Played clubs, played colleges, then arenas, then stadiums. Now, there's no 18-year-old drinking age in most states, so the clubs have disappeared. Tours have gotten increasingly more elaborate and have priced themselves out of most markets. Ticket agents are a monopoly. The acts (and their backers) now look for the "quick score". Independent radio stations are now owned by conglomerates and programmed by focus-group consultants that don't gamble on new artists or play albums on their stations. This was a trend long before the iPod. Steve Jobs and the labels reacted to that, not caused it.

By cap10m

Well said. You should be writing these music articles.

By kmhjbh

Well said!

By jo

Excellent post

By charleyvldm9

Pirating,CD Burning,I-Pods, has caused me to lose Royalties and Sales in my music business.

By Zero

He was already ruined.

Friday 18 March

By omraee entertainment

jobs and that k word are affiated in referance to his power in terms of how it appears.

By quag54

I'm one of those over 50 guys who can relate to what Jon was saying. Taking home a newly release album by one of your favorite groups, putting on the headphones and getting into the entire album as it was intented to be heard. True, some CDs are a rip-off when most of the tracks aren't worth listening to twice. Vinyl records were cheap in the 70's. Still, listening to A Little Help From My Friends without first hearing the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band intro is missing something.

By nancy p*

whats killing the music of today,,,, is the music of today,, mostly studio generated ,autotuned,, singers now cannot carry a tune ,,,even though we have gone high tech blaming steve jobs isnt the way to go,, the way to go is find good artists that can really play a guitar , piano etc,, and who can really sing,,,mylie cyrus cant sing,, if it wasnt for her father she wouldnt have gotten hannah montana,, taylor swift cant sing she ruined a song with stevie nicks on an award show,, justin bieber cannot sing as well,,,, all autotuned,, and singing with a headpiece in his ear,,,, so thats whats killing music of today, untalented hacks that hollywood and the recording industry cottles,,,,, oh i musnt forget the jonas brothers,, and all those disney stars,,,,,selena gomez and demi lovato,,,,,

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