No, Bon Jovi, Steve Jobs Isn't Killing Music

Digital changes aren't all bad
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 15, 2011 5:49 PM CDT
No, Bon Jovi, Steve Jobs Isn't Killing Music
In this July 7, 2007 file photo, Bon Jovi performs during the Live Earth concert in East Rutherford, N.J.   (AP Photo/Mel Evans, file)

Jon Bon Jovi has accused Steve Jobs of personally "killing" the music industry, but Bon Jovi is just engaging in silly "nostalgia grief," writes Keith Staskiewicz at Entertainment Weekly. In his interview with the London Sunday Times, Bon Jovi fetishizes the experience of a physical record. Because of Jobs, he adds, today's kids don't know "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.”

But being able to "test-drive" an album first is actually a good thing, writes Staskiewicz. "It doesn’t eliminate the sense of discovery, only the sense of paying a bunch of money to the already bloated record industry for a potential disappointment." Also, remember that Jobs is "pretty much the only guy who has managed to successfully monetize online music consumption," he writes. (More Jon Bon Jovi stories.)

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