Collapse of Recording Industry Suddenly Makes Sense

“Simon LeBon says Duran Duran was part of industry demise,” according to a headline at Yahoo News:

LeBon: “We were part of the demise of the old-fashioned record industry. We witnessed it first-hand, and it was very interesting, but it wasn’t a great experience. To go from the days when people used to get grand pianos delivered to their doorstep to a time when label executives are being laid off left, right, and center is quite extreme.”

THR: Duran Duran was signed to Capitol first, which is owned by EMI, then had a stint at Sony/Epic, was there any substantial difference between the two majors or are they all the same?

LeBon: “They’re pretty much the same, to be honest. Mainly because you’ve worked with one chief executive at one company, and a couple years later, he’s an executive at another company. One of the things that keeps the majors down is an old school attitude that likes the big expense accounts and isn’t able to economize or pare down. You’re starting to see new record companies and business models taking shape, but it takes time.”

Give it another decade or two; I’m sure it will all work out. And if not, well, it’s tough to feel sympathetic towards recording industry execs who have long signed the paychecks for rock stars who wanted to “rage against the machine” and “tax the rich, feed the poor, ’til there are no rich no more.”  Presumably, they didn’t think that such sentiments would ever impact their own lives.