- Jon Bon Jovi: “Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music busines.”
Bon Jovi has become a grumpy old man. Despite the fact that Apple is actually getting people to pay for digital music, JBJ says that Jobs killed the music industry because no one wants to buy albums anymore without knowing what the music sounds like. Really. And people wonder why the music industry is dying…. - Jeremy Horwitz: An open letter to Jon Bon Jovi from a paying fan
Horwitz, editor-in-chief of iLounge.com, explains why he thinks that Jon Bon Jovi is wrong. He thinks Apple’s technology is what has kept people paying attention to Bon Jovi’s music after all these years. - Bob Lefsetz: Abused audiences killed the music industry, not Apple
Lefsetz, author of the long-time music commentary Lefsetz Letter (it pre-dates the web), argues that Apple and Jobs had nothing to do with the suffering in the music industry. Instead, it comes from audience members: “An audience that had been ripped off for years, sold overpriced junk, who used new technologies to get what they wanted for free.” (Thanks to @briansteffen for the link)
I find these stories fascinating because it frames the argument about digital music in terms of what is legal and profitable, not in terms of presumably illegal file sharing. Whose argument are you buying? If any?