Video Killed the Radio Star, but Who Killed the Music Industry?

There’s been some talk the past couple of days after Jon Bon Jovi mentioned that Steve Jobs (and more specifically Itunes) is the reason why the music business is pretty much all but dead. He said this in the Sunday TImes.

Of course, such a statement cannot be left unnoticed and so NME is adding fuel to the fire by wondering: if Steve Jobs didn’t kill the music industry, who did? They list the man who invented the technology which enabled MP3s. Lars Ulrich of Metallica is another culprit who is mentioned, because he brought Napster to everyone’s attention, making downloads skyrocket after he talked about it in the press. Last but not least NME lists the consumer, that is me, you and everyone else, who download music as another reason for the downfall of music as it’s been around for decades.

I find this an interesting discussion and so I was wondering:

What do you think is the reason for the music industry’s downfall?

Personally, I feel that in part it’s the fact that people download music in huge numbers which leads to people not buying any physical CDs anymore.

However, I also think that in a way it’s the music industry’s fault. Instead of using downloading to their advantage they tried to hard to stick to the status quo of the 90s by trying to force people into buying CDs. None of their measures have worked so far, but still the industry does not seem to fully accept the potential of downloading and streaming music. Itunes still has an area restriction which makes it impossible to get songs when you’re on a certain IP address, and they only just recently got rid of DRM encoding on downloaded files.

I’m not against paying for downloading music, but so far, in my opinion, no good alternatives exist. I still buy CDs, on a regular basis. Actually, what I do is this: I download CDs illegally, and then if I like the album or artist I’ll buy the physical CD later. To me, that’s a win win situation. I get to discover tons of great music and the music industry gets money from the music I find worth buying. Because honestly, there is also plenty of music out there that is simply not worth it.

Your thoughts?