Classic Rock
Mick Jagger talks about the evolution of the music business
Next October 20, The Rolling Stones will release “Hackney Diamonds”, their long-awaited 24th studio album. The first praised single “Angry” was already released and the band’s vocalist Mick Jagger talked in an interview with CBC Radio (Transcribed by Blabbermouth) about the evolution of the music business.
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The musician remembered how music was consumed over the decades and how everything is easier nowadays in terms of hearing what you want.
Mick Jagger talks about the evolution of the music business
“The record business, like all businesses, it changes a lot. The record business being a business of technology, it never stays the same. It never stayed the same ever. When we first started in the record business, it was about only singles. It was about 45s. Albums by pop acts did not sell. What sold was show albums like ‘South Pacific’. I don’t know if this is meaningless to a lot of your audience.”
“So show albums — Frank Sinatra might sell albums; this kind of thing. That was what sold albums. And then suddenly The Beatles came along and they started selling pop albums. So it was a huge change from when it was just about Top 40, it was about selling singles. There was, of course, no money in that, really. And then record companies, rather belatedly, [realized] they could sell millions of vinyl of pop artists, and suddenly that was a huge change.”
He continued:
Then the CD revolution came along, and everyone threw away their vinyl, and everyone bought CDs of what the vinyl they had. So, yeah, and they had 8-tracks, and they had cassettes, and it changed all the time, and then back to vinyl. And streaming is much maligned, but the interesting thing about it is that people of all generations can access music from all periods, whereas before, if I wanted to buy an old blues record from 1955, that was really difficult.”
“I had to do mail order. I had to go into a specialist shop, even though I had plenty of money. Now I can just — there it is; it’s right there. So what does that mean? Well, that means that kids of 16 can access anything they want,” Mick Jagger said.
