Bob Lefsetz spoke to In The City about his view of where the music business is going.
His quotes included:
“It’s all about the Internet.”
“There is no real Rock n’Roll vibe in the music business now. Now it’s all just ‘fucks with bucks’.”
“Execuitves hate the artists because they can get layed and the executives can’t.”
“The price of music has to come down. How come 5 year olds have cell phones now? Because they can afford it.”
“Content is not king. Distribution is king.”
“Labels have control over retail, hence their power.”
“The indie is now on the same footing of the major.”
“Music should not be free.”
“On iTunes I can only afford the same amount of music as I could before. I’m not attacking iTunes – they are there because of the labels.”
“An album is $10-15 album in the US and its one decision. It’s 10 decisions to buy ten songs on iTunes. The iTunes music store is like buying your TV programmes day by day, hour by hour.”
“AOL opened up their portal so people to get in – indicative of the gradual movement toward making content more available.”
“EMI has no power.”
“Clive Davis at BMG is THE PROBLEM with the music business.”
“The key is to have a career band.”
“Universal Music Group has so much market share they are now bullies. They ARE the RIAA.”
“Hialry Rosen now says their position is driving P2P underground.”