Bon Jovi: "Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business"

Image credit: John Ferguson

Many Apple fans will disagree with such a strong statement about the charismatic CEO who has single-handedly shifted the balance of power in the music industry and persuaded youngsters that stealing music is bad for their karma. That’s exactly what Jon Bon Jovi said responding to a reporter’s question about the state of music today. Read on…

The aging musician craves the good old times of buying LPs, the experience he dubbed “magical” compared to the convenience of digital downloads.

Blame Steve Jobs, he cried, for creating a digital landscape of 99-cent instant gratification. Nevermind that it was this a la carte approach with low-priced songs that has saved the bankrupt music industry from going down the drain in the age of digital downloads.

There’s more rambling in an interview with The Sunday Times Magazine. What caught my attention was this controversial quote about Apple’s boss:

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.

Having laid the groundwork for finger-pointing, the aging rocker launched his final insult:

God, it was a magical, magical time. 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 is personally responsible for killing the music business.

Dude, Jobs invented the friggin’ iPod. Have you heard of it?