RSS
The way the music died.
Frontline on PBS is airing a show called The Way the Music Died online on May 29, 2004. In it David Crosby talks bluntly about how the music industry has changed. He says:
"When it all started, record companies -- and there were many of them, and this was a good thing -- were run by people who loved records, people like Ahmet Ertegun, who ran Atlantic Records, who were record collectors. They got in it because they loved music. …Now record companies are run by lawyers and accountants. The shift from the one to the other was definitely related to when the takes started to get big. Somebody [in] a forensic accounting job could probably establish the exact moment at which it reached the level that brought in the sharks. …"
He makes a point about the current concern with style over substance in music and how, if you don't look good on MTV, then you just don't get played. He also expresses disdain for record companies than care more about moving units than the music, and seem more concerned with making a buck than worrying about the artists. This seems so different from the regular story the record companies tell when they are suing average people for downloading music.